Kentmere 100 in caffenol

[Ralph Turner]

I don’t profess to being any kind of expert in these matters, but I have to say I’m really liking what I’m getting with K100 in the homemade soup. This pic is nothing special, just a record shot of the shed base I’d grafted over recently and still incomplete here (shed now up and complete) but I was surprised how well the film held pretty much everything from the bright, sunlit highlights right down well into the dark shadows without any significant blowing/blocking in. To be fair I needed to tame the brightest areas of the image a little so as to balance it a little better, but the outcome was rather pleasing considering how contrasty the the light was originally. (Taken with Spotmatic SP, 55mm f1.8). The neg image here is the straight, untouched scan as outputted from Raw Therapee.

 

[Ralph Turner]

As I might have mentioned previously, this roll did dev up quite contrasty, as you can see, and I suspect would be a tricky prospect to print traditionally, but lent itself well to scanning. I may reduce the soda content of the caffenol mix a little in future.

 

[Geoff Chaplin]

I don’t profess to being any kind of expert in these matters, but I have to say I’m really liking what I’m getting with K100 in the homemade soup. This pic is nothing special, just a record shot of the shed base I’d grafted over recently and still incomplete here (shed now up and complete) but I was surprised how well the film held pretty much everything from the bright, sunlit highlights right down well into the dark shadows without any significant blowing/blocking in. To be fair I needed to tame the brightest areas of the image a little so as to balance it a little better, but the outcome was rather pleasing considering how contrasty the the light was originally. (Taken with Spotmatic SP, 55mm f1.8). The neg image here is the straight, untouched scan as outputted from Raw Therapee.

Indeed, impressive. I have to admit to never having tried caffenol though I've concocted many other brews. Maybe I should give it a try...

 

[Ralph Turner]

Thanks, Geoff. I’m also pleased at what this budget film can achieve. No doubt fp4+, hp5+ etc are technically superior but generally, for my purposes, I’m more than happy with it (and it’s sibling, the 400).