Randomness

I have been following the discussion on the flickr caffenol group and they have been arguing about salf the type what to use and what is forbidden etc.. Geez guys mellow out. Plus all they have done is totally confuse me. I know MY recipie works and the one from Reinhold's blog works (well all of his works ) but the other arsehats? Well one guy claims to have invented or copywrited a name FFS. ANYWAY I think I wil unfollow that group. Talk about being anal about stuff. I thought I understood the process and had a good idea of times but now I am not so sure.

Got a lost from from Vision image and Tim's E-6 film. My credit card refused to pay for my two E-6 films so they had to stay behind but i'll get them next fortnight.

Tim's photos taken with his Kodak BoX brownie model C

The 127 lost film yielded one photo.


I received the Land camera from the FIlm Photography podcast but the only film I had was 1500 sepia and this just doesn't work in this camera. The 101 only had two settings 100 and 3000 and the sepia is 1500. If I choose 100 I blow out the film and if I choose 3000 its black for underdeveloped. Damn I was all excited but its a no go. I wonder what camera I can use the 1500 sepia in. Ideas??

A stereographic camera arrived from the lovely people at Holga Direct. They tested it before posting it as I have had it with Lomography cameras. You will remember that I didn't like the holga last time and sold it. But this is the only affordable stereographic camera on the market.

The customer service from Holga direct is awesome. I do recommend them (And beg for a discount..if you are on twitter but shhh)

Developed three lost films, All blank. But my developer worked wonderfully. That is 6 films in the one batch of caffenol. So not a total loss. beats paying $10 r roll to get blank rolls back.

Been playing with the T50 as the AE-1 is in hospital.


I miss the AE_1P and it looks like it will have to stay with the repair man for ages until my electricty is paid off.


yes you read that. No power for me. **Sigh** This is so depressing I cannot start to tell you. I just cry in the futility of it all. Better to sell my house and move home. I am such a fail right now.

Tomorrow is the closest weekend to 620 day and I am not feeling the excitement I had. I want to shoot 620 but my frame of mind it too dark to shoot anything worthy.

Maybe use the big red but then I realised I can't as it is 120 not 620.. Hmmm The tourist?

fuck it I'm going to bed whilst I have power for an electric blanket.

Trip to parramatta

David had bought me a hairdressing voucher to take care of my damaged tresses. The desert had not been kind and I had not had time to get to the salon. That, and my hairdresser closed up shop. So I made the trek to Parramatta. I packed light. The canon AE-1, a Box brownie ( with film) for Tim, who said he may come down from the wild west a soldier's camera and an ikonta 520/18

I arrived at parramatta with an hour to spare and so shot a roll of film or two. I was using the ikonta as I had found a roll of film in it. The chrome film in the AE-1 was also finished. It was a lot of fun learning to use the vest pocket camera. :-) it is so tiny.
I had finished the Starlet Verichome film earlier that morning.



David joined me for the trip home and upon arrival I set to work developing the ikonta and the starlet film.

I did 8 minutes on the mystery ikonta film and it was under developed. I got nothing from it. :-( I was bummed at myself. The starlet film ( 1969 expired verichrome) developed nicely in 16 minutes of used developer. Who said you cant use it twice.
Hung both to dry and went to bed.



This morning, I scanned the starlet film then headed to the post office.
In the mail was one kodacolor II from another state in Australia with a 35mm canister that may have film in it and a sealed from the factory ilford film. I wanna get into that canister..In another parcel fron the UK, was an ilford film. An FP3" hmm 1960's?

I spent the afternoon developing both films. I mixed up a 350ml batch of fresh caffenol with 50g of iodine salt and added it to last night's developer.

Started with the kodacolor II c-22 film. 11minutes at 21C with 16 minutes fixing as I was using old fixer.



It turned bright red when I pulled it out. Hmm 16 minutes was too much and I am unsure as to what is going on with this film. Well, I got photos. Hanging it up, inrecycled the Salted developer and dunked the Ilford into it, 16 minutes at 21C and 12 minutes used fixer. Again photos. Cool but maybe 20minutes would have been better

Camera of the week is the vest pocket "soldier's" camera, it's small and cute. Trouble is I a, running out of 127 film. :-(

The recipe for low speed films

My successful recipe That I gleened fromt he you tube video in the blog post below with some tweaking that I have done

Woosang's tweaked Caffenol recipe with thanks to the person who posted it on youtube,

Set up.
Processing Tank (Of course)
3 glasses (any size)
3 spoons or more
Measuring jug X 2 at least 500ml
Thermometer
2 stop watches or as I uses an interval program set up for one minute intervals for 20 minutes
Bottle Opener (If you are tackling 35mm canisters)
Scissors

Ingredients
Have these laid out and ready

6 teaspoons of instant coffee (NOT Decaf)
1/4 teaspoon or 1000mg of Vitamin C. Tablets are OK but crush them first
3 teaspoons of washing soda (Wear gloves here)
350ml water at 20C (68F)
Extra water at 20C (68F)or have a tap that you can adjust to 20C (68F)
Fixer I used Acu from Paterson. 50ml mixed in with 350ml of 20C (68F) water
Hardener (optional) mixed into fixer

Liquid soap mixed in water Don't make it frothy

In the dark
I hate Film changing bags so make sure you practise putting the film on the reel first. Find a dark room and then hide under a blanket. If you can use a film changing bag, use that. (I find them too restricting. It is vital you practise first or you will be fumbling in the dark with unfamiliar equipment. Practise loading the tank too for the same reasons.



1. Open the 135 (35mm) canister wit the bottle opener. Use the flat end.



2. Cut the tongue off (The leader) and snip a tiny bit off the edges to aid in loading. (Only a little snip to make the edges smoother for loading)

3. Engage the film on the spool and using a twisting motion walk the film onto the spool (as you have practised this in the light ou know what I mean) If you have not SHAME I did warn you!
Cut off the core and finish the winding

5. Load the spool into the tank and seal

In the light





1. Measure out the ingredients into separate glasses and measure your 350ml (first lot) of 20C(68F) water. Add water to the glasses making sure each ingredient is disolved properly. You may have to heat the water a bit more to achieve this but allow the water to cool back to around 20C (68F)
(Enough Vitamin C goves the brew a greeny tinge)


2. In a big measuring cup (500ml or more) tip the contents of the glasses together, mix and then let stand for 5-10 minutes to clear and micro bubbles.

3. Set the stop watches to 1 minutes and the other to 20 minutes (for Lomo 100 film or Ferrania 100 film this should work for all films but you may have to adjust times as you get beter at this)

4. Pour in the caffenol mixture and at the same time start the stop watches. (As I said I used a training interval timer so it squawked at me every minute but whatever works for you) Agitate SLOWLY (and i Mean SLOWLY turn tank over count to 3 turn back repeat) for the whole first minute . Stomp the tank on the bench after each agitation.

(NB more agitation increased fog significantly. And increasing fog is not the same as speeding development. SO go SLOWLY )

5. Slowly Agitate (As described above) every minute 3 times for the next 20 minutes and don't forget to stomp.

6. After 20 minutes pour out the developer and quickly add 350ml of 20C (68F) water. More water is better. This is to flush the developer and it called a stop bath. We are keeping this as chemical free as possible.

7. Agitate 5-6 times and pour out. Repeat 3 times with fresh water (At 20C/68F roughly.)

8. fixer our chemical step. Tell the kids you will do this one step for them. Keep them away from the film chemical. Its a bummer that we need this step but without it, the film cannot be exposed to light. It is here you can add 25ml of hardener if you want to)
For ACU I used 50ml of fixer in 350ml of water (20C/68F) For fresh fixer 5minutes agitate 3 times each minute and don't forget to Stomp after each agitation.

9. pour out the fixer (Into a bottle, you can reuse it)

10. return to the kids.. Final Washing FYI Water is room temp here I didn't fuss about its temp, just not hot eh?

Water 3X agitation pour out.
Water 6X agitation Pour out
water 12X agitation pour out.

11. Water and liquid soap. Pour into the tank and agitate 24 times. SLOWLY not trying to make a heap of froth.

12. Pour out, open your tank and remove the spool. Walk the film off the spool, I have it attached to a peg and hanging as it walks off the roll. I squeegee with a squeegee but you can use your clean fingers..

13. Allow to dry over night, The opaque parts will clear and you should see lovely photos. :-) The waiting will kill you.. I know I keep going into the room to watch the film dry...



Success!!!

I developed a film

My son shot a film in black and white a little while ago. I wanted to try this recipe from the Internet (You tube) using Caffenol. I had picked up the fixer that I needed and used the last of my cash on a bottle of vitamin C tablets.





SO I had written the instructions out and studied them. I basically had it in my head except the amounts. Which was on my notes. SO I practised putting a film on the reel and found I am conpletely unable to do it in the film changing bag BUT could do it with my eyes closed when not in the bag so I headed for my bedroom and did what I do to un-jam a film in my box cameras. AND I did it first go. SWEET. Put the cannister together and returned to the kitchen to start the brew.



Easy and enjoyable. The washing soda made the coffee smell horrible. :-( But thats a vital part. I found the Vitamin C didn't dissolve so I crushed one. Hmm I need to find vitamin C powder. tablets dont cut it or maybe I need two tablets.. **DAMN!! NOW I remember I needed 1000mg GRR** Need to edit my recipe.

ANYWAY I set up an interval training program to talk to me every minute for 20 minutes and I settled in to the routine. It was quite relaxing sort of like cooking but for once I will not burn the food.. :-)  A small disaster when the chocolate bear I bit into took final revenge, dropping and huge piece into my coffee splashing the Caffenol and getting chocolate and bear in the developer. **Sigh** OK Not midnight snacks when making developer.  **edits recipe**



It was very exciting when I got to the final washing stage and it was with fingers crossed that opened the tank. At first the film looked all blank, but as I unrolled it, imaged appeared. OK Not well developed, I need either more developing time or more Vit C. Still I got images!!!! First go Images!!! :-)

So I count it as a success.



I can't wait to scan them tomorrow.