Originally Posted by
Drew Wiley
Sandy - here you are making a blanket statement based upon one characteristic. For
projection printing, Bergger 200 could handle a very wide range of lighting conditions
and still provide excellent shadow differentiation and highlight control using pyro developers, without the severe graininess of Super-XX. The midtones can also be
marvelous. It's ability to do so relied upon a true straight line. Was it a replacement for Super-XX? Of course not. Nor is 400TMax. But for those of us who do projection rather than contact printing, these two films are remarkably versatile. Calling them "beginner" films might be acceptable if making life easier for folks trying to learn, but is a bit snide if you're implying there's anything unacceptable to advanced users in these films. I'm not belittling your persepctive as a contact printer
on long-scale media, which is valid in its own sphere, and could use a genuine replacement for Super-XX. But for projection printing, Bergger 200 was about as good
as it ever got. I won't go into rumors about why Super-XX was discontinued, other
than the commercial reasons for substitutions I've already noted, but perhaps someone
with a more immediate background to the story could. The environmental issue has
already been noted, which also killed off some favorite old papers. I belive cadmium
was a culprit in some cases, especially in the EU.