large format on Fomapan 100

Hello coffeeholics,

I asked Gerald - http://figalfoto.com/index.html - for a  contribution when I saw his pictures taken with a large format camera and a 150 years old lens. Isn't that really frugal? He immediately agreed and here I proudly present his contribution. Thank you very much, Gerald.

Click on the images as usual for a bigger size.

Best - Reinhold

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Dear Reinhold,

Please find attached as requested two Caffenol-C-L developed photos, the one you liked and the companion shot of the skyline. I thought the pair had good tonal range with the Caffenol. These are the straight scan black-and-white versions.

Tech details:

Both shots were done in the mid-morning facing west with a 4x5 Speed Graphic mounted with a E.&H.T. Anthony & Co. Single Achromatic No. 2 barrel lens (a landscape meniscus) that probably dates from 1860-70s. Skyline shot was at f-22, shutter 1/50; the scrap heap shot was at f-18, shutter 1/50.

Film was Arista Ultra 100 (= rebranded Fomapan 100). 5 minutes preasoak, developed for 70 minutes with Caffenol-C-L in Nikor daylight tank., agitated initially for 45 seconds (= 12 inversions), then let stand for entire remaining time. Water stop, Ilford Rapid Fix.

Scanned negative straight as is on Epson Perfection V700. No post processing on these version (except to crop scan and remove a little dust from scan).

Coffee used was Folger's Classic; Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, powdered Ascorbic Acid, and KBr from Photographer's Formulary. Followed Caffenol-C-L recipe but used 1.5g KBr in 1000ml water.

Vita:

Day job is as university professor (Modern Japanese history and culture) at Vanderbilt University. I've authored Civilization and Monsters: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan (1999) and several articles.

After many years of digital photography as a hobby and work tool, I began film photography about 18 months ago in the fall of 2009 with my deceased father's medium format Brownie Hawkeye Flash and with homemade pinhole cameras (paper negatives and medium format film). At the same time, I taught myself black-and-white film processing and began collecting old cameras of various formats, 35mm to 4x5. After obtaining a 1949 Speed Graphic, I started to acquire vintage lenses for it, conventional and non-conventional ones to experiment with. Lately I am shooting majority LF 4x5 black-and-white alongside medium and large format pinholes. Occasionally I take out my Yashica Mat 125G TLR (which I love), and for "snapshots" I tend to use a 35mm Pentax MG and Pentax Super ME. My "special occasion" camera is a 1926 Kodak Autographic 3A that I modified to take 6x14cm panoramic photos with 120 film.

My aesthetic tendencies are sympathetic to the Pictorialists, but I also appreciate good straight photography. I try to do both.

I love Rodinal, but lately it is getting jealous of my affair with Caffenol-C-L. Like many Caffenolholics, I like the idea of mixing a developer from common substances that are eco-friendly. I also like that it is very inexpensive, but that would not matter if it didn't produce good results. I have had such consistently good batches of 70-minute stand developed Caffenol-C-L -- no fogging, no uneven development, and great tonal range -- that even if all developers disappeared from the world I would be happy to use only Caffenol (okay, I would miss my beloved Rodinal).

Thanks again, Reinhold, for researching these recipes!

Cheers,

Gerald Figal

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Finally a beautiful portrait taken with a 240mm Voigtländer Heliar at f-5.6 on the Speed Graphic., developed in Caffenol-C-L as above. Extremely fine tones and note the clever diagonal line of sharpness only possible with the sophisticated settings of such a professional large format camera. Impressive work! Thank you very much, Gerald.

Best - Reinhold

Micha's first

I received a submission from Micha, a friend from a german analogue photography board.

The 2 images were shot during a walk in the city and later in a small cafe. It was his very first Caffenol development, using the standard Caffenol-C-M recipe described here in a former post. Micha reports that developing was easy and the negs are great. He especially emphasizes the good shadow and highlight rendering and the suitability of Caffenol-C-M for high-grade B/W photography.

I love both images. Perfect composition and craft.

Hasselblad 500 C/M, CF 150mm, Fomapan 100 exposed at EI 100, both shots handheld, scanned from negative, CanoScan 8800F. Click on the images for bigger size.

Thank you very much, Micha, for your submission.

Best regards - Reinhold

Caffenol-C-M details

1. picture: Fomapan100, EI 400, whole image
2. picture: EI 400, crop 10x10 mm negative size
3. picture: EI 100, crop 10x10 mm negative size
4. picture: TMax100, EI 200, crop 10x10mm negative size

Click on the images for bigger size.

All images developed in Caffenol-C-M as described in former post. On my desktop screen, the 10x10mm crops represent whole images of 1.30x1.30 meters print size for 120 film and still 50x80 cm for 35mm film! Caffenol-C-M enhances film speed without changing anything. Compare the EI 100 and EI400 images, both from the same roll, there is almost no loss. Just a tiny little bit more grain.

The last image is a 10x10 mm crop from the TMax100 exposed at EI 200 ASA. Almost no grain, extraordinary rendering from highlights to shadows, usable exposure range from 25 to 800 ASA. The subject had a contrast range of 9 stops. All in all this combo can handle a contrast range of 13 - 14 stops! And you need an extremely good lens to scratch the resolution limits. That's what I call "state -of-the-art".

Images 1-3 made by a 65 years old Voigtländer Bessa 66 with uncoated 3.5/75 Skopar, image 4 made by Pentacon Six with 2.8/80 Carl-Zeiss-Jena Biometar and z-ring.

Stay tuned. More to come ...... Reinhold

Hello

Hi there,

this blog will be dedicated to a wonderful film developer you can mix yourself at home with ingredients you can buy in almost any supermarket, drugstore or pharmacy. It's names are "Caffenol" and "Caffenol-C".

Added Vitamin-C improves the quality in such a degree that it rivals the best commercial developers. The posted image was made with a 65 years old camera called Voigtländer Bessa 66, it has a beautiful uncoated 4-element lens named Skopar (3.5/75), exposed on Fomapan 100 film (type 120) and developed in Caffenol-C. Details like recipe and other tech stuff later.

More to come .... Reinhold