It’s hard to find specific figures, however there has been much talk recently about a resurgence of interest in film photography. Gone also, hopefully, are those endless debates as to which photographic format is ‘best’ – film or digital photography. Indeed, it seems that there is renewed interest in film photography as a visual medium in its own right, rather than simply as the outdated forerunner of digital photography.
Bergger 35mm film canister and packaging
In that vein, following on from the recent announcement that Kodak are re-releasing EKTACHROME colour slide film, there comes more good news for film camera enthusiasts. Bergger, a French company, has announced that they are releasing a brand new black and white camera film, with a box speed of 400 ISO.
Entitled Pancro400, the new film is supposed to be available to buy, in 135 and also 120 formats, between mid-February and early March 2017. (Berger have previously made other black and white negative films, including a 200 ISO and 400 ISO type, branded as BPF 200 and BPF 400.)
According to Bergger, Pancro400 is made with two emulsions – silver bromide and silver iodide – which differ in grain size, allowing a wide exposure latitude. Bergger also state that Pancro400 is designed with an undercoated anti-halation layer and an anti-curling layer. Happily for point and shoot film camera users, the film features DX coding, which makes it easy for those of us with more ‘modern’ point and shoot film cameras to simply load the film and get on with photography. Perhaps also of advantage for point and shoot film camera users, Bergger claim that Pancro400 film has a wide range of ISO speed performance.
These recent camera film announcements are a breath of fresh air, after the loss in recent years of a few old favourites, such as Fuji Neopan 400 and Kodak Plus-X. Here’s to many more new and reintroduced camera films, in all formats, and from all manufacturers.
