A SECOND LOOK AT HARMAN PHOENIX II

 In my previous post, I gave my results from the new Harman 200 Phoenix II C-41 film.  I'm pretty sure that my developer /technique was to blame for the results, but I still managed some very colorful images.  This time, I shot the roll with my Nikon F75 with a 50mm/1.8 Nikkor, and had the film processed by Ball Photo in Asheville, NC.  

After I received my negatives, I scanned them just as I would any C-41 color film, and the results were excellent, especially in full sun.  Indoor and lower light images needed some tweaking, so I would advise to add a +1 stop correction for indoors (without flash) or under deep shade.  

It's obvious that this is an improved film over the original Phoenix 200.  I think that it is less grainy, better color rendition, and certainly has better latitude.

Here are a few shots from that roll.  Definitely much better!  All images are from Maggie Valley, NC - a tourist trap if I ever saw one.

Definitely worthy of your money, and I look forward to shooting more Phoenix II.

FIRST LOOK AT HARMAN PHOENIX II FILM

The new Harman Phoenix II

In 2023, we had the experience of seeing a truly new color film, and from all possible companies, no one would have expected Harman, best known for producing Ilford B&W films. But in anticipation of that new film, we were given teasers from Harman, as the slow burn began and Phoenix rose into the photographic world.  Initial reactions to the Phoenix color film were mixed, with many finding fault of its narrow latitude, and the lack of a traditional orange mask.  I found that if it was shot in overcast conditions, it was better behaved.  I also figured out that it was better to scan the negatives as transparencies (positives) and then invert the images to get better color rendition.  That eliminated the possible problem with the lack of an orange mask.  I do my scanning with an Epson Perfection V700 Photo scanner, not rephotographing with a digital camera. I do know that my results were better with my second roll, since I was more careful in choosing the lighting situation.

Well, here we are in July, 2025, and Harman has introduced Phoenix II.  It's rated at ISO 200, and is DX-coded on the cassette. I shot it at box speed with my Nikon FM3A and a 35mm f/2 Nikkor.  I mostly shot on a sunny morning in West Asheville, because it's full of colorful murals and signs, and what better way to test color film?

I developed the roll myself, and used my FPP Universal Color kit, which I have used for other C-41 films with success, although it was designed for ECN-2 films.

I was a little apprehensive when I opened the developing tank -- hoping that I got decent results.  I had images, alright, but the negatives were "thin" and very purplish.  I hung the film up to dry, and they looked a bit better when I was about to put them on the scanner.  Still, they looked underexposed or underdeveloped, and maybe it was due to the developer already having done 14 rolls of film.  Maybe not. 

 

the sheet of negatives

I scanned the negatives as "positives" like before, because when I tried scanning as negatives, they were green mud.  After the scan was complete I opened the images in Paint Shop Pro on my Dell, and selected "negative image" which gave them a positive, albeit a very green images.  I then selected fade correction, and voila! They looked almost normal.  I did tweak them further for a bit brighter image in some cases.  In the end, they had very punchy colors, especially the greens.

 

positive image scan

 

inverted to a real positive

after applying "fade correction"

While the colors are quite vibrant, the film definitely has a bias towards greens.  Perhaps it was my developing in ECN-2 chemistry that was getting weak. Next roll, I'll send off for development if just to compare. Roll 2 is currently in my Nikon F75, and I'll update later if the results are different.

Scanning technique and post-processing is definitely important, and in the end, I was fairly happy with the results.  This is not a simple film to work with.  There is a definite improvement in shadow detail over the initial version of Phoenix.  The punchy colors are really something, and I like them a lot.  This is not your Gold 200.

There is some halation blooming in pinpoint reflections, as you can see in several frames. Definitely green dominant, but other colors are quite saturated, too.  Who will this film appeal to?  I think that anyone wanting something a bit different - and this is still an experimental film - will find Phoenix II attractive.  I'll need to shoot roll 2 and get it professionally processed to better evaluate it.  If you are looking for a film that has punchy colors and a different look from the typical C-41 films, you should give Phoenix II a try.

I congratulate Harman on sticking with this and not binning the project.  We need more film choices, and not just rebranding existing film stocks. Phoenix II is certainly not perfect, and I hope that Harman keeps making it better.  Making color film is not an easy task, and the fact that Harman is doing so is deserving of your support.

Here are some of the shots from this first roll.  

Overall, despite the developing/scanning steps, this is a very likable film.

Early Riser For A Change

 I've been in a bit of a creative funk lately.  Partly due to working on writing for some projects, I haven't been doing any thing photographically that's notable.  Some of the places that I really enjoyed taking a camera to have lost their attraction because of the damage from last fall's hurricane Helene.  I used to be an early riser back when I was working, as I was usually up by 6 am.  These days, it's a rare day that I am out of bed before 8.  Well, this morning was different - I was awake early, and looked out the window and saw that we had some thick fog outside. I got dressed, grabbed a camera bag and was out the door by 6:30.   

Because we are in the mountains, it's not unusual to have low-level fog in the mornings, and usually it's gone before 9 am, or at least so attenuated that it's not worthwhile going out in search of some good foggy scenes. I could see that this morning was different, so I grabbed my bag with the Nikon Zfc to get some instant gratification if I saw anything that was interesting.  This morning was just what I needed to get back in the groove.  I was full of energy as the fog cloaked familiar scenes into mysterious tableaus.  

My Nikon Zfc had a TTArtisans 35mm f/1.4 manual focus lens attached, and it was the perfect combination for this morning.  For one, auto-focus lenses hunt around in fog, so just keeping the lens at infinity and f/4 to f/8 was all that I needed to do. I shot at ISO 100 and 200 for the most part, so handheld shots were possible.  The thing about fog is that if reflects and scatters a lot of light, so it's actually brighter than you think because above the cloud bank, it's a perfectly clear sky.  Unless of course, it's at night. I was prepared to work quickly, because the fog could dissipate at any time.  So, in the span of about an hour, I drove and visited several sites that I felt would be interesting, and they were!

My first stop was just down the road from my house, at the Weaverville Mulch Yard.  The mountains of mulch looked like a mountainous view, with the diffused light creating silhouettes of mulch piles.

My next stop was a little over a mile away at lake Louise Park.  There, the water and the fog created a very special combination of diffused light and reflection.

After that, I ventured right into Weaverville, and shot some street scenes, but the views into the nature park were the most rewarding.

I then drove over to Reems Creek Road, and the old Balcrank factory building was dissolved in the mist, much to my delight.

A little farther on Reems Creek Road, I stopped at the Karpen Soccer park and was happy to see that a lot of the damage along Reems Creek had been ameliorated.  There were some great views of the creek and the surrounding vegetation that caught my eye, especially the bamboo thicket on the opposite side of Reems Creek.

In the span of a little over an hour, I shot a lot of images in b&w, and I am quite happy with what I got. There are a lot more excellent images other than the ones  shown here. The Nikon Zfc really did the job. Sometimes it just takes getting up early to set the day off to a good start.  Carpe diem, they say.