Bergger Contact

[Ole]

I accidentally came across a nice shop which sells (among other interesting stuff) Bergger Contact paper. So - I ordered a packet! Does anyone know anything about this?

Oh - and I also ordered a small packet of Amidol and one of Glycin - more darkroom experiments to play with!

 

[PJC]

Not a whole lot of experience, but I have used the paper. It's a lot faster than AZO and you can enlarge onto it, if your light source is bright. It's fairly low in contrast: somewhere between a grade 0 and 1.

The paper surface is almost matte, with just a slight sheen and it's a very heavy cotton paper - like artist watercolor paper, with a slight texture.

The few negs I printed did not leave me overly impressed with this paper for general printing, but for certain prints it's quite nice.

Wish I could offer more, but I only used it a few times and that was a couple of years ago.

 

[Ole]

Whew!

I've tried it now - with projection printing...

Using my Durst 138S, condensor head, 300W opal bulb, Rodagon 180mm, a 5x7" negative on 8x10" paper worked well at exposures in excess of 2 minutes at f:5.6.

Developer was Gevaert G262 at 1:8, it took 4 minutes for anything to show up on the print. It was still developin when I pulled it out after 10 minutes. With this combination the contrast can be controlled in a "lith-like" way, a second print at 5 minuts exposure, yanked after 6 minutes in the soup, was of considerably less contrast. I would say the contrast on the first one was about what I'd expect from a grade 4 paper, the second one about 2½.

Image tone is very cold, but warms up a lot in Selenium toner. For comparison I did a print on Kentmere Art Classic, at "normal" exposure. The print was the brownest I've yet seen without toning - but cools off to a nice tone in selenium...

Examples in the Technical gallery...

 

[Aggie]

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[Ole]

Will do - as soon as I get a light fixture in my darkroom. All I have now is a safelight and a door I can open!

 

[PaulH]

From what I have heard, the Berrger Contact paper is a lot faster than Azo. A light in a fixture may be too much. I print my Azo using my Omega D2 enlarger with a cold light. I take the negative carrier and the lens board out and move the focus all the way up. With the negative plane at 2 feet from the paper, I get reasonable exposures. A typical negative is around 15 seconds, a really dense one around 2 minutes. Hope this helps.