Nescaffenol (C&C sort of)

DaireQuinlan · 23-02-2007 12:17am #1

I got a new camera the other day, a Yashica mat TLR. The guy who sold it to me thoughtfully included about 10 rolls of expired ilford B&W with it. Perfect opportunity, I thought to myself, to try out something I've been wanting to try for a while. So I wandered into town, shooting as I went , and got a 120 development tank, some nescafe, a bag of washing soda, and some Vitamin C tablets from boots.

Having never developed anything in my life before, some instructions were pored over. An entertaining half hour was spent in my wardrobe, with the door closed and all the lights upstairs in my house off, trying to get a roll of reluctant 120 film to slide into the reel.

The magic ingredients were mixed in (roughly) the right quantitys and kept at an exact and steady 20C (give or take about 5 degrees). Development commenced. There may have been some agitation ...

Washed ... Fixed ... Washed ... Dryed ... Scanned ... Voila (links to flickr photo page) :

All developed haphazardly in the above mentioned ingredients. I'm continuously amazed they came out at all. Also : note to self, never drink instant coffee ever again ...

Fenster · 23-02-2007 12:28am

Very nice work, I have my new film camera (I got it loaded in the end, Sebzy, it was bad film) and a few rolls of Ilford ISO 400 B&W

Borderfox · 23-02-2007 8:30am

Nice pictures, love the first one.

magicbastarder · 23-02-2007 9:46am

how much was the 120 dev tank?
unfortunately, i don't have a room i can light-tight very easily, so i may have to do it all in one of those tent things.

georgey · 23-02-2007 9:56am

Good for you, I went to my local shop to have a roll of tmax developed during the week, the price was 17euro, now that was just for regular 6x4 prints and they said it would take a least 2 weeks to be returned, so I said no thanks I am strongly thinking of trying my hand at developing myself now.
Philip

DaireQuinlan · 23-02-2007 9:59am

I got a cheap 120 tank in camera exchange on georges street. 20 euros. There're others, naturally, for a lot more ! It can also take 35mm on the same spool by adjusting it. I guess if you got 2 spools you could do two rolls of 35mm at the same time. I found the wardrobe did the trick, apart from the fact that I forgot to put the centre spindle into the middle of the spool for about half an hour that the tank was sitting out in a lit room, so the first few frames and the sides of a lot of the frames (woulda been the tops when they were in the tank) are fogged.

DaireQuinlan · 23-02-2007 10:02am

georgey wrote:

Good for you, I went to my local shop to have a roll of tmax developed during the week, the price was 17euro.

Wow. I had no idea that it was that expensive nowadays. The last time I actually got a roll of B&W developed it wasn't too much more expensive than colour. That was about 6/7 years ago though ... If I were you I'd start stocking up on that instant coffee !

magicbastarder · 23-02-2007 10:09am

if you go to gunns, i think they hand develop and machine print - that €17 is probably hand develop and hand print, or else just a ripoff.

Rojo · 23-02-2007 1:23pm

magicbastarder wrote:

how much was the 120 dev tank?
unfortunately, i don't have a room i can light-tight very easily, so i may have to do it all in one of those tent things.

Just an idea, if you had access to your attic easily? That might do!

elven · 23-02-2007 1:49pm

I used to do my own E6 (slides) and had a changing bag from Jessops, obviously doesn't help if you're printing but it's actually quite easy to get the film spool onto the thing in the middle of the tank once you've had a couple of practise shots. Then you can take the tank out of the bag with the film in it and do the rest of the chemical stuff in daylight.

23-02-2007 2:53pm

julie ,do red lights have any effect on processing film ? .
I always thought they were ok in a darkroom ,but I'm nearly sure someone said you have to develop film in complete darkness.

DaireQuinlan · 23-02-2007 3:35pm

_Brian_ wrote:

julie ,do red lights have any effect on processing film ? .
I always thought they were ok in a darkroom ,but I'm nearly sure someone said you have to develop film in complete darkness.

Yeah, they'll fog the film. As julie points out though, the only bit that HAS to be done in complete darkness is loading the film onto the reel and sticking it into the tank. This is unsurprisingly more complicated than it seems, particularly with a big wobbly piece of 120 film. What makes it all the more complicated is if you don't realise you have the reel upside down in the dark and spend ages trying to poke a bit of film into non-existant slots. -sigh-

Benster · 23-02-2007 5:18pm

Daire - That development method is news to me, got any links to how to do it? All I've used before is some very smelly stuff that you can't pour down the sink afterwards and is still sitting in the shed in an old milk carton...

B.

DaireQuinlan · 24-02-2007 12:18pm

heres how I did it ...

20 oz water
3000 mg vitamin C
6.25 tbsp Washing soda (got in tescos in jervis street)
10 tbsp Nescafe instant coffee (gold blend !)

Heat water to about 25c
mix the water and the washing soda until all the granules have dissolved. grind up however many vitamin C tablets you need (ot mine from boots, slow release vitamin C 500 mg so 6 tablets, pestle and mortar did the job on them) and toss them into the water. mix until the foaming stops. Toss in the coffee and mix THAT until the foaming stops. Let it stand for 10 minutes and then mix it again, there should be a scum on top of the water which you can mix back into it. I let it stand for another couple of minutes. It was at about 20c at this stage.

Tossed it into the tank and developed for 12 minutes (ish) agitating every minute for 10 seconds. No stop bath, just washed well, then Ilford rapid fix for 5 minutes or so then another wash, and a final wash in water with a little bit of washing liquid in it. Then I just hung them up on the bathroom to dry. I'd run the shower for about 10 minutes before hand to steam up the bathroom so all the dust would settle so I got pretty dust free prints.

Enjoy !

We actually have a flickr group dedicated to this :-)
Homemade Soup