comparison of hp4+ vs bergger 200

[david o'connor]

i am dusting off my 5x7 after several years, and hope to be shooting again soon. The film i used in the past was a kodak product, and availability reasons dict ate a change of material. i plan to use either either hp4+ or bergger for my fut ure work, processed with acutol or similar developer. i am looking for a painful ly sharp result. i dont want to trim down 8x10 tech pan (or give money to kodak for that matter). i may well buy a box of each and "try it!" but i also value y our insight and input based on hands-on experience with these products. subject matter will predominately be detail-rich machinery (trains, trucks, etc) so i am not concerned with true-to-life skintones or cloud/sky renditions as a performa nce criteria. on the other hand, there may not be enough difference between the two to films to matter in this case. thanks in advance for your input.

[Pete Andrews]

Is that HP5+, or FP4+?HP4 was discontinued years ago.

[Kevin Kemner]

David,

If sharpness is your governing criteria than I would pass on the bergger film. Its great in PMK but can get pretty grainy in some other developers. If you don't mind ordering from Photographer's Formulary then you should try FX1 or FX2 developers. FX1 is reputed to be as sharp as they get.

[tim atherton]

HP4 discontinued? Since when? are we talking 35mm, 4x5, 5x7?

Or are you talking about FP4 as opposed to FP4+?

Last time I ordered 5x7 FP4 I got it - that was in the last year when I borrowed a friends 5x7 to try out. (thought that was back in the UK). Last time I looked, B&H still listd it?

Tim A

[dave bulmer]

I think there is some confusion here. Hp4 is surely not still available. Fp4 in someone's fridge maybe.

[paul owen]

David, if indeed the film you mention is Ilford FP4 Plus then I would stick to it in preference to the bergger film. I found the bergger to be a lot grainier than most films of comparable speed and although it stains very well in PMK, I have found that the Ilford film also shows good staining in both PMK and DiXactol. Ilford films seem happy to be processed in whatever dev you have lying around and still produce great negs!! Regards Paul

[tim atherton]

Whoops, with my typos I managed to add more confussin - I meant FP4 (+ or not) all along... (not sure what the original poster meant though)

Tim A

[david o'connor]

original poster says: I meant to say ilford fp4+ (125 rating). also,the degree of enlargement will be 20x24 max. thanks again.

[josh_560]

I would try the arista 125 since its the same as fp4 and very cheap. supposedly 5x7 will be available later this month. I shoot arista 400 in 4x5 and love it.-J

[John Hennessy]

For what its worth, at a talk I recently attended Gordan Hutchings said he has given up on Bergger because of uneven emulsion caused by sloppy production methods.

[david o'connor]

as a first-time poster, i must say i'm impressed with this whole deal. what a wealth of information and resources made-to-order. I have ordered 2 boxes of fp4+. I kind of figured that without hearing much talk of bergger (good or bad) that it probably was not overly impressive with non pmk developers. I shall begin my (simplified) asa tuning for my lens/camera. Thanks to all.