This was my first attempt using Spur HRX developer with Bergger Pancro 400. It did not go well! The base of the negatives came out a milky brown; no idea why. I contacted Spur, who are looking into it and doing some testing. They will let me know the outcome.
- On the left: Rollei RPX 100 developed in Spur Acurol-N – a fairly normal-looking negative
- Middle: Bergger Pancro 400 developed in Spur Acurol-N – a light brown tint to the negatives.
- On the right: Berger Pancro 400 developed in Spur HRX – a very heavy, dense milk chocolate brown tint to the negatives.
The image above does not show the full extent of the base tint and opacity of the Berger Pancro 400 developed in Spur HRX; it was a very dense milk chocolate brown, as the following clip shows:
Negative off-cuts showing the difference in base colour and transparency.
- Top: Bergger Pancro 400 film developed in Spur HRX – note that the graph-paper lines are not visible
- Bottom: Fomapan Classic 100 film developed in Spur HRX – the film looks normal.
If anybody knows what may have caused this or experienced something similar, please leave a comment.
The shoot and negative development
Camera: Mamiya 645 1000S
Film: Bergger Pancro 400 @ 500
Developer: Spur HRX
Agitation: Two inversions at the start, then one inversion every minute
Digitised: Nikon Z6 and Capture One software
The following images are a selection from Film Roll 158. It is worth noting that all images have been heavily processed in Capture One to get the best possible results. The negatives were not that good!
You can see all the digitised images here.
Further editing of the negatives
Although the negatives are usable after heavy processing in Capture One, they are not great. Inspired by the brown tint of the negatives, I applied a light brown tint to the better digital images. I think they look good – olde worlde. So I finished off the look with a border.
