Development time for Bergger BRF200 and Ilford DD-X

[aldevo]

I have a roll of Bergger BRF200 in 120 that was accidentally shot at EI 200 (which is very nearly 1 stop underexposure for this film). To account for this, I want to develop the roll in Ilford DD-X.

Unfortunately, the only development time that I can find for this film developer combo is a 6 minute time from the Massive Dev Chart. This time seems awfully, awfully short given that BRF 200 usually requires more development time than many ISO 400 films.

Has anybody tried this combination?

Thanks

 

[Rick Levine]

The ISO for the film is 200. You exposed it correctly. Actually 200 is the manufacturer’s recommendation only. You need to do film speed tests to determine what the actual speed is for your equipment and methods.

This is from Bergger's site:

http://www.bergger.com/inter/brf200.html

 

[JLP]

A few years ago i underexposed the JandC 200 which i believe is the same film by shooting it at box speed. This film, is as you already stated is a 100 Iso film and probably the most difficult film to get anything out of if underexposed.
DD-X is not the worst developer as far as speed goes but if you have anything important on that roll, buy some Diafine and hope for the best.

 

[PhotoJim]

J&C 200 was Foma 200, although Bergger film used to be made in the Foma factory (but with a different emulsion). It's now manufactured by Ilford, again with Bergger's emulsion.

 

[JLP]

Jim, Foma and Forte was two different companies. Forte no longer exist but Foma does. Forte made film and paper for Bergger.

I have used both BRF 200 and Forte 200 and have not been able to see any difference between the two.
Do you have any specifics about Harman making film for Bergger? As far as i know Berrger no longer have any film in their product cataloque.

I should ad that Foma 200 builds contrast like no other film but BRF200 and Forte 200 was almost impossible to overdevelop.

 

[aldevo]

First, Bergger does still offer a slow-speed blue-sensitive film in their catalog. This is actually produced by Filmotec, though, not by Bergger (which never produced anything at all). All their former films (BRF100/BRF200/BRF400) were absolutely Forte films with generously marked-up prices.

I gambled on a development time yesterday with DD-X - and it worked almost perfectly!

I developed it for 9 1/6 minutes and the negs look quite good. I might have fared better with 20 seconds less development time - but they negs seem very printable and scannable.

I arrived at 9 1/6 minutes by calculating the ratio of my development times for 400TX and BRF200 in PC-TEA and then multiplying my development time for 400TX in DD-X by that ratio. Taking good notes on your film development pays off.

I sure do wish somebody could produce more BRF200, though. It's a spectacular film when processed correctly. Thankfully, I still have a stash of Classic Pan 200 and Forte Pan 200 in 135 and 120.

 

[aldevo]

A few years ago i underexposed the JandC 200 which i believe is the same film by shooting it at box speed. This film, is as you already stated is a 100 Iso film and probably the most difficult film to get anything out of if underexposed.
DD-X is not the worst developer as far as speed goes but if you have anything important on that roll, buy some Diafine and hope for the best.

The film has a very short toe. Indeed, you really do pay for underexposure. You can get EI200 out of it only in flat lighting with a developer like DD-X. The lighting wasn't very flat on the roll I shot and a few of the frames do seem slightly underexposed...even in DD-X.

In bright light with, say, Pyrocat-MC - I'm inclined to shoot it at EI80.

 

[aldevo]

J&C 200 was Foma 200, although Bergger film used to be made in the Foma factory (but with a different emulsion). It's now manufactured by Ilford, again with Bergger's emulsion.

This would be great news if Ilford is, indeed, producing it. But I haven't heard this is true. Ilford is producing paper for Bergger but it's widely reported that these are just Ilford products "in drag" with slight differences in paper-base tints but no emulsion differences at all vs. their Ilford counterparts.

Aside from the blue-sensitive emulsion I cited in my last post, Bergger no longer lists any film on their USA web site.