Bergger Pancro 400 is a film I’ve been wanting to try for a while and I recently got a couple of rolls - one 35mm and one 120. I haven’t shot the 120 yet, so these thoughts are going to be about the 35mm.
Pancro 400 is made up of two emulsions. Bergger say this gives a very wide exposure latitude. However, I had read that if you overexpose the film then one of those emulsions gets grainier than the other - the grain appearing in the highlights. Because of this I planned to shoot at box speed for my first test of it.
But as with all good plans, it didn’t quite work out that way. I decided to shoot it in my Yashica Electro 35 on a relatively overcast day at Rockaway Park near Bristol. Rockaway is an old scrapyard which has been taken over by a group of artists - shipping containers are used for studios and there are loads of random rusty old things around the place, from Trabants to rockets via carved up metal signs. You know that besieged oil refinery in Mad Max 2? Well, it feels like you’re in that but with more trees.
Anyway, it was overcast and looked like rain. So I figured shooting at 400 was fine. And then the sun came out. And back in. And out again. So to give me a bit more control for when the sun was out, I rated it at 200.
And yes... I can confirm that the highlights get quite grainy!
At first I was unsure but as I scanned more shots in, I started to quite like it. It has quite an old look, and certainly one that is quite unique - the blacks are nice and clean and the grain becomes more obvious as you move up through the tones.
And the tones are very nice! Superb gradations and a lot of detail too.
I’ll be interested to see what happens when this is shot at box speed - I’m planning on doing so with the 120. So I may have further thoughts about this film in the future…
