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Finally A Use for Instant Coffee: Film Developer
(via - Engadget)
Caffenol turns Folgers into DIY film developer — decaf won’t do (video)
We knew instant coffee was good for something. The folks atMake just demoed a rather novel method for developing negatives from a roll of black and white film — you remember film, don’t you? Known as Caffenol, the process involves a smattering of household substances, including Vitamin C powder, instant coffee (caffeinated only), good ole H2O, and Cascade. Of course, it’s not as simple as throwing this stuff in a slosh bucket with a roll of film and mixing it up, but it’s not that complicated, either. If you’re looking for something to do with those instant crystals, and still have a non-digital camera laying around, hop on past the break for a homebrew tutorial.
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4 Responses to “Finally A Use for Instant Coffee: Film Developer”
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I first heard about this a couple of months ago on Chris Marquardt’s photo podcast. They were planning on using caffenol + vitamin C to develop their film at 16,000 feet on an Everest Trek (not to the summit). They were looking for a more environmentally friendly way to develop their film in the field because on past trips the sherpas would take the used chemicals and just pour them into the ground. They found out later though that the chemical change that the caffenol goes through in this process actually makes it more hostile to the environment than the standard developing chemicals. I don’t know any science behind it but I found it interesting.
BTW, robusta works best according to Marquardt.
You don’t really need the vitamin C powder. All you need is water,instant coffee & sodium carbonate which can be found either as Arm & Hammer washing soda or Soda Ash/PH plus used for swimming pools/spas (you can also cook regular baking soda in the oven[spread thin on a cookie sheet] for an hour at 450 F & ‘convert’ it to Sodium Carbonate). Instructions can be found on the internet and it actually works rather well though the negatives have a bit of base fog (no big deal with printing just increase the contrast) and scan well. They are sharp with fine grain but low contrast with excellent shadow detail.
Thanks for the tip.