Hello Apuggers,
This site is a fantastic resource! I have been shooting film for a year and a half now, and a lot of the stuff I learned I learned here
. Here's my contribution to the Apug knowledge base...
I received a few rolls of Bergger's "Pancro400" in 135 last Friday, and I had some time on Saturday to shoot a roll around Paris with my M6 and a Summicron-50. You see, I'm interested in supporting any efforts to bring new emulsions to market. As per the Bergger's instructions, I developed it in HC110B for 9mins at box speed. Yes, that's a long time for a 400ISO film in super-powerful HC110B.
But ... the results are quite nice. As advertised, smooth tonal gradations and low grain. I'm mostly familiar with Tri-X and HP5+ and this new film seems to be less contrasty than Tri-X in HC110B. It is certainly less contrasty than Bellamy Hunt's Street Pan, another recent film, and is neither as fine-grained as that film. Now, compared to TMAX-400 -- I would be hard pressed to say, as I have only shot five rolls of TMY. In any case, it seems to strike a nice balance between grain and tonal detail.
Anyway, here are a few shots. All except the last photograph (which was made with a more modern lens) are taken with a Summicron-V2, which has older coatings, so that has a certain effect. Of course, I adjusted the contrast in my scans to taste, but I think you can see what's in there. I am well aware that a contact print and an enlargement would be the best thing to do and that these kinds of web-tests may have limited value!
One last thing, physically the film is really nice. Nice and thick and substantial. After developing, the base layer goes to grey, and not pink like a certain other film. I had no trouble loading at all it in my steel dev reel. I'm looking forward to shooting the other four rolls.
I wrote all this stuff up here, together with a little history of Bergger:
http://blog.insolublepancake.org/2017/02/paris-25th-of-february-2017-in-bergger-pancro400.html
I wonder if anyone else here has experience of this film? I may try a few other ELs or developers for the other reels. I didn't find much yet in the archives.
Thanks for reading!
cheers
henry

This site is a fantastic resource! I have been shooting film for a year and a half now, and a lot of the stuff I learned I learned here
. Here's my contribution to the Apug knowledge base...I received a few rolls of Bergger's "Pancro400" in 135 last Friday, and I had some time on Saturday to shoot a roll around Paris with my M6 and a Summicron-50. You see, I'm interested in supporting any efforts to bring new emulsions to market. As per the Bergger's instructions, I developed it in HC110B for 9mins at box speed. Yes, that's a long time for a 400ISO film in super-powerful HC110B.
But ... the results are quite nice. As advertised, smooth tonal gradations and low grain. I'm mostly familiar with Tri-X and HP5+ and this new film seems to be less contrasty than Tri-X in HC110B. It is certainly less contrasty than Bellamy Hunt's Street Pan, another recent film, and is neither as fine-grained as that film. Now, compared to TMAX-400 -- I would be hard pressed to say, as I have only shot five rolls of TMY. In any case, it seems to strike a nice balance between grain and tonal detail.
Anyway, here are a few shots. All except the last photograph (which was made with a more modern lens) are taken with a Summicron-V2, which has older coatings, so that has a certain effect. Of course, I adjusted the contrast in my scans to taste, but I think you can see what's in there. I am well aware that a contact print and an enlargement would be the best thing to do and that these kinds of web-tests may have limited value!
One last thing, physically the film is really nice. Nice and thick and substantial. After developing, the base layer goes to grey, and not pink like a certain other film. I had no trouble loading at all it in my steel dev reel. I'm looking forward to shooting the other four rolls.
I wrote all this stuff up here, together with a little history of Bergger:
http://blog.insolublepancake.org/2017/02/paris-25th-of-february-2017-in-bergger-pancro400.html
I wonder if anyone else here has experience of this film? I may try a few other ELs or developers for the other reels. I didn't find much yet in the archives.
Thanks for reading!
cheers
henry

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