Anyone tried pushing film with caffenol?

Hi all
I've been bulk loading some colour film I purchased. It's actually Kodak Vision 2383 Print film normally used to duplicate cinema film. It's great for home development because
a) it's half the cost of regular bulk load BW film and
b) even though it's a cinema film, it doesn't have a remjet layer so technically, I can send it to a lab to develop as C41 colour film (as long as i use an orange filter because it's tungsten balanced).
c) it has a grey base so it's great for cross processing in BW developer.

The downside is that it's ISO 3-6, which is not as bad as it sounds when using an F1.4 lens in full daylight. The other downside is that it's hard to meter because the canisters I use for bulk loading have ISO100 DX code so I have to remember to over expose the film by 4-5stops.

It sometimes works...
Feral camera - Olympus OM-30 by Analog Diaries, on Flickr

And sometimes it doesn't
Walking Tall by Analog Diaries, on Flickr

I develop in Caffenol-CL and there's not a lot of info out there for pushing film with this developer. Ideally I'd like to push to ISO25 (the lowest ISO that DX coding recognises)

Notes on current developing - I don't use a restrainer and I develop for 35min at 20degC

I've got very little experience in processing, having just developed 2 shots in Caffenol (stand developing) but I'm sure this thread will interest me as I progress.
So far my home processed film has been using direct positive paper, with a 150mm/1.3 on my 5x4 monorail. This lens has neither aperture or shutter so the ultra slow ISO (I've heard around 1-3) is needed & full daylight is a bit much!

Common sense has told me to use a shuttered lens to get my processing right first, but who wants to listen to that! :)

I’ve pushed HP5 to 800…can’t find the shots at the moment. I remember thinking I wouldn’t bother with it again for pushing. Now I just used Microphen.

I've no experience with caffenol or push-processing, but if I did want to I would search Google. If no luck, I would check recommended development times for 2 or 3 stop increases with similar films and their normal developers for a starting point, and run clip tests with your film and caffenol.
Seems odd to me that you're using DX cassettes - I suspect they're not intended for reloading. What camera are you using that DX encoding cannot be overridden?

Yes I've already done a Google search. There's info on pushing film but none that I can see using caffenol.
Regarding DX coding, I'm recycling old film cassette by taping the the bulk roll to the film tail sticking out of the cassette. The camera just needs to make the right electrical connections to read the ISO for the film. The film cassettes have existing codes for ISO100 and 400 film which can be easily hacked to code for ISO25 by covering the right silver bars with electrical tape. I could also scratch off the black bars to reveal the metal if I needed to hack the code to another ISO. I've also heard of people covering the electrical contacts on the camera to hack the ISO.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DX_encoding
I'm using a Pentax P30 that exclusively uses the DX code to meter exposure. If there's no dx code it defaults to ISO 100.

Tried to talk sense - sorry for wasting my time!

If anything, Caffenol is a speed reducing developer. Think of it like Perceptol for example. I have found with my limited experience with it that for HP5, instead of rating at box speed, I rate at 250 to 320. Increasing time isn’t very effective as caffenol exhausts fairly quickly. I would either increase the concentration by 50% to 100%, or add ascorbic acid…or both.

A push processing Caffenol recipe is mentioned on page-171 of…

The Film Photography Handbook, 3rd Edition.
By Chris Marquardt, Monika Andrae.
Page-167→ books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZoGKEAAAQBAJ&newbks=0&pg=PT167&lpg=PT171&focus=viewport

+
caffenol.blogspot.com/

Edit: Reinhold's blog looks exciting, but I'm hittin' the rack. lol
as he says, start at March 2010

Thanks everyone for your comments.
It looks like I'll have to do some experimenting once my camera is "free" again (currently has colour film in it).
I had already read the caffenol.blogspot and the advise there didn't match my experience with the film/caffenol recipe combo I'm using (which is why I posted my question here).
I must have missed the link to "The film Photography Handbook" when I did a google search so thanks @Greg for the link.

It’s a good book with a wealth of info.

@TheDavinator, it sure is. It'll take me a while to get through it all :D

Hey! I haven't tried pushing in caffenol (or done anything with caffenol) but I am curious to see what happens. Best way to try is just to try, right? FWIW I regularly push-process HP5+ to 1600, developing in D-76 stock. Have you considered an alternate developer? D-76 is pretty reliable for stuff like this and it isn't expensive at all.

Speaking of budget films: For my last bulk roll, I did Kentmere 100 instead of FP4+ and I have been very happy with it.

Aaron
www.flickr.com/photos/aarongold/

I’ve been curious about the Kentmere 400 and how it pushes as well. While Kentmere is made by Ilford, I presume the formulation is different…in other words, it’s not HP5.

Actually as far as I have understood from Harman/Ilford a while ago the Kentmere films are based on the older formulas FP4 and HP5 (non plus versions)

Interesting. The hat would be the HP5 I started processing in the 80s. Now I have to give it a try