Caffenol-C-H works

Finally got round to TX in Caffenol. Heard many are very unhappy with their results. I however am very chuffed.

Though this film could very much have gone down the drain.

Story behind the last frame on the roll, the first in this post:

That this shot came out at all is a bit of a miracle.

Firstly the back on the Super 66 has developed a light leak. Luckily this and the first frame are exempt from damage, all the others are not.

Secondly the first 5 frames of the film, all have a dark lower 1/4. Why is a mystery. Again this frame went clear.

Thirdly the self timer switch on the leaf shuttered lens got engaged without me noticing. Once I thought I had the shot in the bag (the mirror swinging up makes a loud kaaawhuump) and I started to walk away I heard the dreadful sound of the timer clockwork. I rushed back and reframed blind (the mirror was still up of course, obscuring the view, so why am I looking into the viewfinder?). And better framing than this is difficult even with finder. Missed the focus by a foot though. So now my reflection is more in focus than I had hoped. Ah well, that´s Sod´s law I suppose.


Kowa Super 66, 150mm f3.5, Tri-X. EI400, Caffenol-C-M (RS), 14:30min @ 20C


Racer and I by Eirik0304, on Flickr

The first frame on the roll has it´s own problems:

Strange dark area to the bottom of the frame, also evident on the next 3 or 4 frames on the same roll. Very strange, might be mirror bounce, or even the auto darkslide not flipping up fast enough. Disappeared after half a roll.

Like the tonality evident in this shot though. Very smooth.

Kowa Super 66, 150mm f3.5, Tri-X. EI400, Caffenol-C-M (RS), 14:30min @ 20C


Stortorget by Eirik0304, on Flickr
 
Just tried Arista Premium 100 in Caffenol CM at 12 minutes, 3x/min agitation, room temp. Had and 81A or 81B filter on most shots in lieu of a yellow filter. It turned out wonderfully. Most taken with an EOS 650 and 50/1.8 lens. After some grainy results the first time around, I nailed it this time. It may be my new top choice for 100 speed film.

Negatives "scanned" with an Oly E510 dslr and 35mm macro lens. (much faster and sharper than my Epson E500 scanner.)

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A 100% crop from the above shot shows the negative is taking my 10 mp digital to its limit and probably still missing lots of finer detail!
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really excellent results.
I believe that film is rebranded Fomapan 100.
I have been using a lot of Foma 100 and trying to hit the sweet-spot with CCM, but still get consistently overly grainy results, despite reducing soda content.
I tried a couple of T grain 100s with CCM and got beautiful tones and grain ... but I'll plough on with the Foma until my present supply runs out.
 
After developing the above roll, I souped some Fomapan 100, shot at asa 200, for 18 minutes. The results were definitely more contrasty, grainy, not as sharp, though still more useable than some of my earlier results. It probably needed a little less developing time as some of the highlights were blown.

Shot using an OM-1 with either the 50mm f1.8 or 135mm f3.5. Same 'scan' method as above. Sorry about all the photos of cameras... I figure this thread is more geared to results than amazing photography, at least in my case. ;)

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really excellent results.
I believe that film is rebranded Fomapan 100.
I have been using a lot of Foma 100 and trying to hit the sweet-spot with CCM, but still get consistently overly grainy results, despite reducing soda content.
I tried a couple of T grain 100s with CCM and got beautiful tones and grain ... but I'll plough on with the Foma until my present supply runs out.

Thanks, I appreciate it! I was under the impression that Arista Premium 100 was Plus-X? Or, at least it used to be? I bought this stuff about 9 months ago.

Having developed Fomapan 100 and AP 100 in CCM, the AP 100 seems different, but I'm sure there are lots of people out there that pay closer attention to these things than I. In any case, my sweet spot for Foma 100 is also about 12 minutes.
 
Lovely results. The first set of AP scans are really good. Good tonality, sharp and fine grain it would seem.
 
Another go at Tri-X, since the last one was fraught with camera issues.

New emulsion this time (last one was the previous, and now expired version). C-C-H, same timing, but with only 0.7g/l Kbr. EI 400

Found Tri-X to be very fine grained in this solution, click the picture and view the original size to get an idea of how well this combination worked.


Silver waters by Eirik0304, on Flickr


Fjord crossing by Eirik0304, on Flickr
 
Not bad at all. Indeed quite good.

The first two are more contrasty than the the second two. Which if is also the case straight from the negative, would seem to confirm my findings with PolyPan F. Pushing it does yield more contrast. In your case it would seem you have better control than I ever attained, I never really got the hang of PolyPan, though I did like it for cityscapes at night, the halo effect is quite intriguing.
 
Has anyone here ever tried adding a shot of Rodinal to caffenol? If so, what do you do and what results do you get?
 
I am curious if anyone is developing prints in Caffenol. If so, what recipe are you using. The tones in these photographs is really amazing.

Anyone using Caffenol with TriX? or just the finer grained films?
 
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