Thank you, very informative video. The key to consistency using caffenol is the sodium carbonate it must be pure. Shop bought will not work. Potassium bromide stops fogging and gives even development. I use it for film and printing.
Only out of curiosity, I made this same cost comparison several years ago after seeing a number of YT videos extolling the cost savings of Caffenol. In my comparison, I used D-76. Moreover, since I compound my developers from bulk chemicals, I use my cost based on DIY chemistry rather than the retail sales price of store bought developer, as he does here. Of course, my self-compounded, "real" developer was much cheaper than self-compounded caffenol. The reason caffenol is so much more expensive is that you are making it out of retail priced, store bought food and cleaning products, where most of the price is based on retail profits taken at several marketing levels before the final delivery to you at the store. "But you need expensive and hard to get chemicals to prepare a real developer!" No, you do not. If you can prep caffenol, you can prep D-76. In addition to being more expensive, caffenol also give poor results, in the form of unregulated and substantial fogging of the film emulsion and a general lack of contrast and sharpness. In other words, there is not a single, rational reason to indulge in caffenol, and several reasons to drop it like the dumb idea it is.
Great point on the costs of raw material vs retailer prices. Even on retailer prices, and photo products costs a lot, caffenol makes no sense. The fact is caffenol is become so trendy on YT and social media... and it's very easy to do a clic bait with coffee and film in the title... and success on YT is 99% a clic bait title.
Thank you, very informative video. The key to consistency using caffenol is the sodium carbonate it must be pure. Shop bought will not work. Potassium bromide stops fogging and gives even development. I use it for film and printing.
Thank you for the appreciation and the suggestions. Perhaps one day I will try again.
Only out of curiosity, I made this same cost comparison several years ago after seeing a number of YT videos extolling the cost savings of Caffenol. In my comparison, I used D-76. Moreover, since I compound my developers from bulk chemicals, I use my cost based on DIY chemistry rather than the retail sales price of store bought developer, as he does here. Of course, my self-compounded, "real" developer was much cheaper than self-compounded caffenol. The reason caffenol is so much more expensive is that you are making it out of retail priced, store bought food and cleaning products, where most of the price is based on retail profits taken at several marketing levels before the final delivery to you at the store. "But you need expensive and hard to get chemicals to prepare a real developer!" No, you do not. If you can prep caffenol, you can prep D-76. In addition to being more expensive, caffenol also give poor results, in the form of unregulated and substantial fogging of the film emulsion and a general lack of contrast and sharpness. In other words, there is not a single, rational reason to indulge in caffenol, and several reasons to drop it like the dumb idea it is.
Great point on the costs of raw material vs retailer prices. Even on retailer prices, and photo products costs a lot, caffenol makes no sense.
The fact is caffenol is become so trendy on YT and social media... and it's very easy to do a clic bait with coffee and film in the title... and success on YT is 99% a clic bait title.