My Caffenol variants deliver reproducible results and I use them for even the most delicate jobs. Here again 2 samples with the Tmax400 in Caffenol-C-L with 1g/l KBr, semi-stand development, 60 minutes at 20 °C. 5 minutes presoak, 10 inversions initially, 3 inversions at 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 minutes. Left image exposed at EI 1600-3200, right one at EI 800. Don't use at EI 400 or less, will be overexposed with blown highlights, or reduce dev time! 800 - 1600 will produce best overall quality. If not pushing too heavy, the tonal range is comparable to Acros100 at EI 200! Both are ideal for scanning and highest subject contrast range.
Caffenol-C-L has proven to work greatly with high speed films. So it's usable for almost any kind of film.
Best - Reinhold
Hello Reinhold,
ReplyDeleteYou get fantastic results with this developer, and I want to give this developer a go as well. One thing I do not understand is the presoaking. One would say that with this logn stand development it would not be necessary to presoak the film for 5 minutes. Have you any idea what makes this step necesaary?
Hi Jeroen,
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I don't know. It's a common practice to presoak with stand development and I just did the same.
Thank you and best regards - Reinhold
Very nice indeed Reinhold. I tried TMAX400 in Caffenol-C-H for 15min at 20C, normal inversion (1min initially, and 4 inversions every minute) and am not quite sure of the results. Bracketed the shots from EI400 to1600. All rather dark. EI 400 and 800 nearly impossible to separate, whereas EI 1600 were flatter and with visibly larger grain. Have you any good thoughts on how to treat TMAX400 in C-C-H (or C-C-M)?
ReplyDeleteBest regards
Eirik
Hi Eirik,
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't recommend CCH for the Tmax400, but never tried. In CCL it produces some (non disturbing) base fog, I guess without Bromide it could be too much.
You say the shots are rather dark, does it mean the negs are dark? How is the base fog at unexposed parts of the negatives, too dark? If so, you should reduce the dev time and maybe even expose less (at higher ISO). Reducing dev time will also reduce grainyness. CCL in general makes finer grain and would be my preferred variant. Any samples you can show?
Best - Reinhold
Hi Rerinhold, I tried CCl with TMax 400 and the images came out extremely thin with a noticeable base fog. I think CCM is the way to go..... Also I have noticed variances between different brands of Vitamin C and the developer activity.
ReplyDeleteI get Swedish Vit C from a supermarket which is a food additive, powdered and marked E300 under EU-regulations. This works very good.
I also get Norwegian Vit C from the pharmacy, this is more sugar-like and has no E-number marking (its *medicine*) This works less active and has ruined some films for me.
I do storage bottles and have noticed a definite yellowing when I mix soda and the E-300 marked stuff, but substantially less yellowing, nearly no when I use the pharmacy stuff. I read that as less sodium ascorbate production with the pharmacy stuff.
Also I have to report an astonishing success :
http://www.apug.org/forums/groups/coffee-developers-d965-might-world-sensation.html
I developed a colornegative film, Kodak Advantix APS, in standard CCM witj KBr, as usual. I did this together with another film I have had great success with before (two separate tanks, identical mix)
The other film came out just as normal, the advantix came out perfectly developed.
BUT THERE WAS COLOR!!
I have studied this as best as I can, it seems like the Caffenol CCM worked as a perfect color developer! I have never been so astonished when I openened a tank in my life!
ErikP
Hi Erik,
ReplyDeletemy experiances with C-41 films are limited but I never saw colour developing. Maybe you can show some sample at Apug or somewhere else?
I never saw a yellowish colour from the Vit-C, but usually I don't store premixed solutions ;-)
Tmax400 shows some base fog in C-C-L, but not a real drawback. I guess in C-C-M, as you suggested, base fog will be much higher.
Tmax 400 in C-C-L works perfect for me, I use the combo even for delicate jobs. Measuring with a scale is a must imho, because the amounts are smaller, especially the soda.
Best - Reinhold
PS: remember the Tmax needs a longer fixing time. The GP3 f.e. needed only about 30 seconds to clear, resulting in a fixing time of 1 Minute. The Tmax400 needs 4 minutes in the same fresh(!) fixer to clear, resulting in a fixing time of 12 minutes! Tmax needs 3 times the clearing time for proper fixing!
ReplyDelete