 Yo what up welcome back to another episode of Quarantined in California Yeah Well, I'll be the first to admit it This was not the episode that was supposed to air today due to a certain beer Pathogen crisis that I'm definitely not afraid of I had to reschedule a little bit So poor shot of your finest hand sanitizer and let's toast to inevitability Cheers I call it a Quarantini Well, Berger Pankrow 400 finally came to 35 in 120 formats and by finally I mean in 2017 a much much simpler time for sure But yeah, I'm a little late to the game So I wanted to give it a go and see what it could do I've been shooting a lot more black and white this year Which now that I think about it may be correlated to the infamous Kodak price jump anyway since I've been shooting black and white more I figured I'd try out some of the more popular stocks and see if there are any that are worthy recently I decided to test out Berger Pankrow 400 and review it So anyone watching this at 4 a.m. Quarantined in their room can make a more informed decision going forward Pankrow 400 is a black and white film that Berger claims produces a wide latitude image And if you know anything about me, I'm all about latitude In fact in high school I was even voted most likely to latitude This film is actually the only film that Berger produces nowadays that isn't a self-described darkroom film So either they've perfected the film entirely or they're on the losing side of some film photography turf war with Ilford Anyway, a while ago. I decided the perfect opportunity to test Pankrow 400 would be an upcoming camping trip in the desert With my brother and his three douchebag roommates who will probably try to kick my ass if they see this So I loaded up the forerunner with only the essentials and headed out On this camping trip Fortunately, I did not bring my green tent You know the one I'm talking about the one that looks like what throw-up looks like not that it would really matter because I'm shooting black and white anyway, but that 10 Pankrow stands for panchromatic, which is a type of black and white film that actually describes most of the black and white films on the market today panchromatic black and white film in a general sense can see a wider array of the visible light spectrum So it renders your image closer to real life But what is real anyway now? You might be like isn't that a good thing don't we want our photos to look like real life the truth is Real life sucks so alternatively you can shoot an orthochromatic black and white film Which is not sensitive to red light like Ilford's new orthochromatic 80 ISO film, but we're not gonna dive into any of that today I just thought it was important to highlight orthochromatic and panchromatic and their differences So Berger Pankrow 400 is a two-emulsion film one emulsion being silver iodide and the other being silver bromide Which I can only assume is an awesome combination like drinking 151 and playing with fireworks in reality the two emulsion combo creates a very wide latitude for the film almost as wide as your mom So what camera did I shoot you're probably dying from this virus to know I shot with my thickest camera thick with Tussis the Pentax 6x7 Furthermore, I decided to shoot the two rolls of Pankrow 400 at box speed Brandon have you ever even been to a gym? Initially one thing that I didn't like about this film was the end of the roll tape It's the lick it kind not the sticky peel apart kind which is far superior if you disagree then I think I need to physically fight you Now I didn't shoot any Pankrow 400 in 35 millimeter But I can imagine it's all pretty similar apparently the film base is different between 35 and 120 But I can't imagine that that makes a huge difference in the final outcome of the image In fact, Berger Pankrow 400 can be obtained in a wide variety of formats including 35 120 and of course large format And even 20 by 24 ultra-large format if you hate yourself and shoot that Good morning crusty crew. Good morning, Patrick. Good morning beautiful So you may be looking at the shot and think what the hell happened here that's sweet You must be new around here my Pentax 6x7 has a spacing issue so it only gets about nine and a half shots I sometimes show the last shot anyway, even if it's f***ed up like that tattoo on my shoulder anyway I definitely have to agree with the wide latitude claim by Berger There's certainly a healthy amount of information in the highlights and the shadows In fact, the latitude was so expansive that when I scan the image I got a very flat look So I had to go in and season the contrast to taste in lightroom Typically I shoot my black and white film one stop underexposed to get more contrast and darker shadows That might be something I try in the future, but I imagine with pankrow's wide latitude one stop may not really make a difference In fact, what I'll probably do in the future is push the film two stops to get more contrast My main black and white film is illford hp5 But I actually feel like pankrow lends a unique look to the image with its wide latitude Admittedly though, I kind of felt like the film rendered some images with a little bit of like dullness It's kind of hard for me to explain exactly what I mean. So I'm not going to bother with it It's probably nothing they're both panchromatic films But honestly, I feel like pankrow delivered more information onto the negative than what I typically get with hp5 It's a minute difference and frankly, I could just be imagining it Honestly, they're both amazing films and you can't go wrong with either not that it's even a competition in the end It was a fun trip and it was cool to explore a new film I may actually end up using pankrow 400 from time to time in the future And I'd be really excited to test the flatness of the film with some night photography. So yeah That's it until next time. Stay healthy practice social distancing Stop making out with park benches and remember to wash your hands and may the odds be ever in your favor I will see you all later out in the apocalyptic wasteland in a few months