Harman Technology, the home of Ilford Photo and manufacturers of high quality, top notch, black and white photographic film for the great film photography community, have made a 35mm colour film. Yes, you read that right, 35mm colour film is being made in the Harman Technology manufacturing facility in Mobberley, Cheshire and it's called Harman Phoenix 200. I am a tad late to the party, but let's celebrate anyway.
This news is not just a ground breaking entry into colour film, it is the very first colour film made entirely in house by Harman Technology. For years Harman have thought that making a colour film wasn't feasible for them, but that all changed when a few select individuals got together and discussed the pro's versus the con's of designing and manufacturing a colour film, from scratch, for the very first time.
The project was top secret, nobody in the film photography community knew they were even considering it, never mind actually making a 35mm colour film. As you can imagine when the first teaser appeared on social media in November 2023 the community was full of questions. What was this new product being teased? When would it be unleashed upon the world and what would it be called? We got that question answered pretty quickly as the new social media channels all proudly bore the name Harman Photo.
But, hang on, why call it Harman, why isn't it branded as Ilford Photo or Ilford Colour?
That's a great question and has a two part answer. The first part is to keep Ilford Photo for black and white film, paper and chemicals. A brand new film required a brand new name and Harman Photo was chosen to differentiate the black and white section of the company from this new colour section. Ilford Photo will always be synonymous with high quality black and white film, paper and chemicals. Harman Photo will hopefully do the same for colour film starting with Phoenix 200. The second part is that Ilford Imaging (the other Ilford) own the Ilfocolour brand and continue to sell colour film, probably made by Kodak, and rebranded as Ilfocolour 400.
More teaser videos were published with a picture of a Phoenix on a business card. A few select businesses, vloggers and bloggers were sent a sample to test and give feedback for how best to shoot, develop and scan this brand new film. Not me though, *sob*, I had to wait until 4pm on December 1st 2023 for the big reveal. A millisecond after Harman Photo Phoenix 200 colour film went live on the Analogue Wonderland website I was filling out my order form as I knew I had to get my hands on it.
This first batch is a limited run, there's only so many to go around, which makes sense to me. There's no point in making one million rolls of film if you know the formula may change for the next production run. There was only a limited number of the first production run "in the wild" and I bought three of them. As far as I know it has been flying off the shelves at film retailers around the world who were lucky enough to get an advance supply to sell on the day of the big reveal.
But, hang on, you shoot black and white film. Why do you want this new colour film?
Another great question and an even easier answer. It is the first all new colour film made by Harman Technology. It was formulated, coated and packaged totally in house in Mobberley. That facility is an hour drive from my home and I see it as supporting a local business. It is also an experimental film and I like to have a little fun experimenting with different cameras and film.
Harman are confident they can do this and have invested a chunk of money into making a colour film. They also know it isn't perfect. It needs critical eyes on it to give feedback on how it can be improved and, more importantly, what film photographers like and don't like about it. It makes sense to ask us to invest our money into this project at this stage and be a part of the research and development process.
My first impression of this brand new colour film is the attention to detail Harman have given to the presentation of this film. The packaging is a nice design with the Phoenix motif prominent on the box and on the film cartridge. It is DX coded too which makes life easier for your average film photographer who just wants to load a film into their camera and crack on. How a product looks is often as important as how it performs and Harman have applied the same high standards of presentation to Phoenix 200 as their Ilford Photo black and white film.
Film photographers are notoriously curious and many probably have a fear of missing out (guilty as charged, m'lud!) I have read many reviews of it and, as I live in dark, wet, cold, dull and gloomy Wigan, I shot my first roll at 100 iso. Many people have said give it plenty of light, so I pulled it one stop. I also got a rare afternoon of bright sunshine in January and took full advantage of winter golden hour. I knew the shadows would be really dark, but the etra light would make the colours pop. That's why we shoot colour film, isn't it?
I want a solid baseline to work from and having three rolls gives me a chance to rectify any mistakes I make and maybe even experiment with it. It is after all an experimental film, so why the heck not. I chose to shoot Phoenix 200 with my Olympus OM-10 and Zuiko lenses. The aperture priority mode and legendary metering Olympus built into their OM range of cameras would give me the best chance of having decent, well exposed shots to work from. I took a walk around my favourite classroom, Mesnes Park in Wigan and finished my roll in the town centre. Golden hour in January is magical. The sun stays low in the sky all day and allows us an extended period of beautiful light to play with on a sunny afternoon. I really hoped I had got this first roll right or I might not have got another sunny afternoon for a while. Two days later it snowed.
So, how does it look?
I sent mine to Analogue Wonderlab to get it developed and scanned. When it was time to see how a commercial lab other than Harman Lab would develop and scan Phoenix 200, Analogue Wonderland was invited to become involved with it. I will be learning to scan and process my film at home, but for this first one it needs a lab to do it right and I trust Analogue Wonderland with my film. They were entrusted with helping Harman with the scanning so, to me, it made sense to send it back there for development. I figured they would take a little time to get their scanning settings for Phoenix 200 dialled in. When I got my scans I could see they had spent that time wisely and it looks great.
It's got bags of character and the colours really do pop in the sunshine. For a first attempt at manufacturing their own colour film, Harman have "almost" got it right. Yes this release was a gamble, it's a beta test and who is better to test it than the film community? I would like to see an anti halation layer on the film and the midrange tweaking to stop it being an all or nothing kind of film. It reminds me of film from the 1970's, yeah I am that old. It has a look similar to 126 film shot with an Instamatic with lots of grain, dark shadows and colours that pop in the sunlight, especially red. The grain isn't overpowering either, it adds to the nostalgic look of the photos and I quite like it.
The halation is great for neon signs at night, but on a rare sunny day here in Wigan, I didn't need to see the branches of the trees fringed with red. Kodak and Fuji use an orange substrate for their colour film, I think Harman used what they have in stock, their black and white film substrate. I can't fault them for wanting to keep their costs down. Research and development costs to make an entirely new film, colour or black and white, are rather high and it can take several years to perfect.
Harman have put a lot into this film and getting the film community involved has worked. We have helped with the costs, Harman have a heap of data to go through and the next iteration of Harman Phoenix 200 will take our thoughts and observations into account. There will never be another Harman Phoenix 200 like this first retail version and that makes it unique. For that reason alone I'm glad I got a few from the first batch. It was fun to use a brand new film and not knowing what to expect from it. Now I know what to expect I will really enjoy shooting my second and third rolls from this first batch.
Here are a few of my favourite photos from my first roll of Harman Phoenix 200 35mm colour film. These are the scans I got back from Analogue Wonderland. I have straightened a few photos up because I got them wonky when I took them, but I haven't done anything else to them. It was a fun experiment and the Photography Gods smiled upon me with a sunny afternoon to get the best from it. As always I have placed them and more in an album on my Flickr account that you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Harman Phoenix
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