Topic: Developing Fomapan with Caffenol or Parodinal

[sapata]

Hello guys!
Has anyone tried this combo before?
Will be doing a workshop, and I was used to using Ilford HP5+ which works wonderfully, especially with Caffenol. Although, for costs reason, they'd bought Foma 100 and 400 ISO.
Thanks!

[Bryan]

I've developed Fomapan 100 in Beerenol with great results.  https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=60348236%40N07&sort=date-taken-desc&view_all=1&text=Fomapan%20beerenol

Dodge W Series Truck by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Japanes Jail by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[Francois]

And I've developed Foma 400 in Caffenol C-H and must admit that this combo is really nice.
It gives the film a nice contrast range with very decent grain.

Just don't prepare the caffenol with some blueberry flavored vitamin C tablets; while they taste good, the smell they produce when dissolved is truly from another world... and not a nice one at that 🙄

[sapata]

I've developed Fomapan 100 in Beerenol with great results.  https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=60348236%40N07&sort=date-taken-desc&view_all=1&text=Fomapan%20beerenol

Dodge W Series Truck by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Japanes Jail by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Nice work, Bryan. I never tried this one before, I should have a go at some point.

[sapata]

And I've developed Foma 400 in Caffenol C-H and must admit that this combo is really nice.
It gives the film a nice contrast range with very decent grain.

Just don't prepare the caffenol with some blueberry flavored vitamin C tablets; while they taste good, the smell they produce when dissolved is truly from another world... and not a nice one at that 🙄

That's great, Francois!

I have ascorbic acid to use. I've used before tablets and they smell awful indeed!
Do you remember the developing time?

[Francois]

I did a bit of digging here and found the thread
https://filmwasters.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=10d08f81d2c565c704bc2a9c3b60c385&topic=9775.msg131819#msg131819

CS1 gave me the following instructions

Give Caffenol a go. It looks like any form of Caffenol (you've seen the results with C-H (RS) and with C-L in this thread) seems to work really well with Fomapan. The current developing times that I use for Caffenol-C-H (RS) at 20 °C are 14 minutes for Fomapan 400 at box speed (agitate for the first 30 sec., let it rest 30 sec., invert 3 times and then invert 3 times every full minute) and 8 minutes for Fomapan 100 at box speed (same agitation scheme). I've recently shot Fomapan 400 @ EI 800 and it worked really well. In Caffenol-C-H (RS) you need to develop it for ~20-21 minutes (I still need to run a few tests but it looks like that's a useful time). It's quite unusual to get good results with Fomapan 400 @ EI 800 because Fomapan doesn't have the reputation of being a "push friendly" film. Fomapan 400 also works really well @ EI 100 (I had to use it once that way because I wanted to use it for a box camera on a very sunny day). I simply exposed it at EI 100 and developed it as I would the Fomapan 100.

[Bryan]

Nice work, Bryan. I never tried this one before, I should have a go at some point.

I think you could get similar results with Caffenol.  Check this out https://www.caffenol.org/2012/03/11/fomapan-400-in-caffenol-std-experiments-and-results-and-large-format/

One thing I have found is anhydrous sodium carbonate works best.  I bake it in the oven at 250F for 90 minutes. Make a big batch and keep it sealed so moisture doesn't get in. 

[sapata]

I did a bit of digging here and found the thread
https://filmwasters.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=10d08f81d2c565c704bc2a9c3b60c385&topic=9775.msg131819#msg131819

CS1 gave me the following instructions

Give Caffenol a go. It looks like any form of Caffenol (you've seen the results with C-H (RS) and with C-L in this thread) seems to work really well with Fomapan. The current developing times that I use for Caffenol-C-H (RS) at 20 °C are 14 minutes for Fomapan 400 at box speed (agitate for the first 30 sec., let it rest 30 sec., invert 3 times and then invert 3 times every full minute) and 8 minutes for Fomapan 100 at box speed (same agitation scheme). I've recently shot Fomapan 400 @ EI 800 and it worked really well. In Caffenol-C-H (RS) you need to develop it for ~20-21 minutes (I still need to run a few tests but it looks like that's a useful time). It's quite unusual to get good results with Fomapan 400 @ EI 800 because Fomapan doesn't have the reputation of being a "push friendly" film. Fomapan 400 also works really well @ EI 100 (I had to use it once that way because I wanted to use it for a box camera on a very sunny day). I simply exposed it at EI 100 and developed it as I would the Fomapan 100.

Wow... 8 minutes with ISO100 looks quite short developing time, I'll give a try anyway... many thanks!

[sapata]

Nice work, Bryan. I never tried this one before, I should have a go at some point.

I think you could get similar results with Caffenol.  Check this out https://www.caffenol.org/2012/03/11/fomapan-400-in-caffenol-std-experiments-and-results-and-large-format/

One thing I have found is anhydrous sodium carbonate works best.  I bake it in the oven at 250F for 90 minutes. Make a big batch and keep it sealed so moisture doesn't get in.

I had seen this post, but checking the digitaltruth chart, seems that the developing times changes according to the film size (120, 355mm and 4x5)

[Francois]

It's possible that they change for different formats. Sometimes they use a slightly different emulsion for different formats. But I think it's mostly due to the amount of chemistry used. Like for 120, which has the same surface area as 35mm (36 exp), but essentially double the amount of chemistry. So the amount of effective elements present is greater when compared to smaller formats.

As for the times given by CS1, I know his times for 400 were pretty close to optimal. but we're dealing with an experimental developer that is based on non-optimal developing agents that have not been calibrated and tested in any way, so results will vary.

The only thing for sure, the Robusta coffee used is sure to give you heartburn no matter what.

[sapata]

It's possible that they change for different formats. Sometimes they use a slightly different emulsion for different formats. But I think it's mostly due to the amount of chemistry used. Like for 120, which has the same surface area as 35mm (36 exp), but essentially double the amount of chemistry. So the amount of effective elements present is greater when compared to smaller formats.

As for the times given by CS1, I know his times for 400 were pretty close to optimal. but we're dealing with an experimental developer that is based on non-optimal developing agents that have not been calibrated and tested in any way, so results will vary.

The only thing for sure, the Robusta coffee used is sure to give you heartburn no matter what.

Great, Francois... thank you for your help!

[Francois]

You're welcome 😊