Bring on the Bergger

One thing I'm always keen to try is a new film, so I imported a few 120 rolls of the Bergger Pancro400, a film that was released early this year. Bergger is a French company who have apparently been making film for years, though I've not heard of them before; the formulation for Panchro400 was apparently developed in France and the film is manufactured in Germany.

 

Here's how it looks:

 

 

Pancro400 is a two-emulsion film composed of silver bromide and silver iodide on an acetate base. The makers claim a very wide exposure latitude, extreme sharpness and very full tonal range, so I was keen to see how it performed. I went out this morning with a roll loaded into a Bronica S2a fitted with a 135mm Nikkor-Q f/3.5 lens, and shot as varied a range of my usual subjects as possible, rating the film at 200 ISO as I knew that the subsequent development in PMK Pyro would approximately halve the box speed. The exposure seems about right, though I stuffed up on the development, having not read the suggestions printed on the inside of the box; I developed it as I would Ilford HP5 Plus, but the makers suggest a development in Pyro of about 25% longer, and the film consequently had a slightly under-developed look. However, once I got my head around the rather different scanning parameters it produced some truly excellent scans.

 

From my one-roll experience I note the following.

 

The film exhibits slightly more grain than HP5 Plus, but it's quite a different structure, quite gritty, what I'd call a "salt and pepper " grain, very even with no sign of clumping.

 

Possibly because of this structure, the film exhibits very high acutance, and the apparent "sharpness" exceeds that of HP5 quite noticeably.

 

The film also maintains an huge range of mid-tones, even in the slightly thin negatives I was scanning, with good deep blacks and subtle highlights.

 

The film base is very thin and the film dries flat with no tendency to curl.

 

Overall, Pancro400 shows great promise; in many ways it reminds me of the greatly-missed Fuji Neopan 400 in the 120 roll. I'd be really interested to hear other member's opinions of the film if they have some experience to share. I post a few samples and I'll continue refining my approach to the film; I'm sure you'll see some more samples from me over the coming weeks.

 

Hunting the Croissant

 

 

Jeep

 

 

1910

 

 

Bouzaids

 

 

Pashley Cycles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, the French Bakery in Greytown......I had one of the best sausage rolls I've tasted, there, when I was in Greytown for a funeral in 2015.

Nice results, Rick. This is a very different film from the Bergger BPF 200 I tried more than a decade ago. Thanks for posting.

This looks like a very nice film--long in tonality and nice "sharpness." Whether the film itself, or the staining artifact of the Pyro--the full, rich blacks are a nice touch compared to the "creamier" look of HP5.

 

I used some of the Bergger 200 some time back--in the 4x5 sheet size. Although there were some that had complaints in graininess shooting smaller formats--I found it to be quite satisfying in basic LF use. There are still several plastic sealed boxes in the freezer (on top of the Efke 25 :-) that I hope one day to use for something...

Hello Rick

Very nice images, I am waiting for the film to go off backorder on B&H

I look forward to trying it

Hi Rick! the tones are rich. And i love the gradation. My eyes cannot see much of the grain that you mentioned. They, possibly, contribute to the tones that I perceieve!

Thanks for the post. sp.

Yes, John, many a great sausage roll I have consumed there... I'll be very interested to hear your opinion of the Pancro400 when your order has arrived, Don. Thanks for your comments on the Bergger film, Mike and PapaTango. Hi SP! I'm pleased you approved of the images. The Pancro400 grain certainly isn't intrusive, but I think if you put a 20x16 print from HP5 Plus and one from the Pancro400 side by side, the grain in the Pancro400 would be more apparent.

 

I shot another film this afternoon, a real torture test in very low, hard sun, and increased the development time by 25% over my original processing. The negatives were better from the extended development, and I'll post a sample below. I find the full tonal range and the detail in both shadows and highlights quite excellent, along with the overall clean, crisp rendering of detail. The camera was a Bronica ETRs with the 150mm Zenzanon MC f/3.5. Developer was the usual PMK Pyro.

 

The Bakers

 

Edited June 12, 2017 by rick_drawbridge

This would be better recommendation for Bergger, if Rick didn't make everything look good :)

 

Thanks for the notice, for sure.

Of course, it would another matter altogether, if they would make 220 available. They do offer 35mm and sheet films, though.