HARMAN PHOENIX 125 - One roll review

 

I was recently given a couple of rolls of Harman Phoenix 125 color film to evaluate - one roll of 120, and 1 of 35mm.  This review is about the roll of 35mm, which is what I shoot the most.

Some History
Back in late 2023, Harman launched their Phoenix color film, and called it “experimental” which was an appropriate move, since the film had some issues with dynamic range and depending on the lighting, the colors could be quite saturated.  The other problem was with scanning.  The film was (and still is) on a clear acetate base, much like slide film.  Scan quality varied considerably, but I found that scanning the film as a positive and then inverting gave me much better and consistent results.

Phoenix II was released in July, 2025, and Harman purportedly fixed some of the deficiencies in the original Phoenix film.  Improved grain, shadow and highlight retention and improved contrast were touted features of the new film.

With less fanfare, we now have Harman Phoenix 125.  

From the Harman website:
“HARMAN Phoenix 125 retains the same characteristics that you loved (or hated) about the original Phoenix 200 but with a new speed of 125 to reflect how you told us you shoot it.

High contrast and strong, visible grain are just some of its unique traits that help to produce characterful, unmistakeably analogue, results unlike any other colour film.

With a DX coded cassette (IN 35mm), and a box speed of ISO 125, It performs best in good, consistent light and on brighter days or when shooting into the light there is also a possibility of halation.

It delivers punchy, vibrant colours although they react differently to different scanners and settings. Getting the exposure right will certainly help to get the best results so we suggest metering for the mid tones to retain shadow or highlight detail (over or under exposure is not Phoenix’s friend)! 

Part of the fun of shooting film is expecting the unexpected and this film delivers exactly that from its uniquely coloured negatives to chance encounters with occasional coating anomalies. Hold back your expectations and enjoy the experience!”

It’s great that Harman acknowledges the peculiarities of Phoenix 125.  Is it just a rebranded Phoenix II at ISO 125 instead of 200, or did they also tweak the emulsion?  I don’t know the answer to that, but given what I do know, I think it’s fair to shoot it as an ISO 125 film and see where that takes me.

I loaded the roll into my very trusty Vivitar V2000 K-mount SLR. This is a camera that’s been on long road trips and has consistently produced good results.  I used a Pentax 50/1.7 and 28/3.5 lens for the roll, that I shot in one day on an outing to Black Mountain, NC.  Sunny to partly cloudy conditions.
 

I dropped the exposed roll off at Ball Photo in Asheville to get it developed, and then scanned the negatives at home on my Epson V700. Scanned as positives and then inverted in Corel PaintShop Pro, and applied any other minor adjustments.

The clear base looks a lot more like the original Phoenix

Overall, I think these are the best results that I have achieved from the Phoenix films. I would say that the colors are more muted, and the reds tend to be more orange-ish. The halation is still there, and some may like it.  However, the grain seems better, and the shadow detail has improved.  It’s not designed to be the “Kodak Gold Killer” as it’s a quite different emulsion, but it does now offer a reasonable and more likeable result.  I think that Phoenix 125 certainly deserves a look, and as more people shoot it, we’ll see more opinions about this film. Harman definitely has listened to users of its products and as they get more feedback and experience with making a color emulsion, we shall possibly see some more tweaks in the months ahead.  

Making color film isn’t a simple process, and in this day of digital, we ought to appreciate Harman’s dedication to the process.  I’m ordering some more Phoenix 125.

I have a plan... a Domiplan

 Back to the Beginning and fixing a Meyer-Optik Domiplan lens

  My very first SLR was an Exa 1A with a Meyer-Optik 50mmf/2.8 Domiplan lens. It’s the only lens that I used with that camera, which I had for about a decade.  As a beginner, I was just happy to have a real camera, and that Domiplan lens served me well - and I had no reason nor the resources to acquire another lens.  I’ve written here before about my early years with the Exa 1a.  It’s not a camera that I would ever recommend to anyone, let alone a beginner.  But in 1973, it is what I had.   I’m sure that if a Pentax Spotmatic been my first SLR, I would have been really over the moon with it.  

If you have been following along for the past couple of years, you would know that I am working on a book about M42 cameras and lenses with emphasis on the Pentax Spotmatic series. I previously shot a Domiplan lens with an M42 body in 2013. Over the years, I have acquired a number of M42 mount Meyer-Optik Domiplan lenses and wanted to use them, but every single one of them had a non-working aperture, forever stuck wide-open at the very modest f/2.8.  That seems to be the major problem with that lens.  I found that I still had two examples of the lens, and I really wanted to see how it performed for me now, over 50 years since I received the Exa 1a.  

Two Domiplan lenses apart. Both were fixed.

So, I did what everyone else does, and looked for repair videos on YouTube! I have two lenses, so at least one of them should be repairable, right? Some of the “repair” videos made me cringe, but two sources stood out as being excellent (this one and this video).  After about 4 hours of working on it, I now have a fully functional Domiplan lens.  The two most frustrating aspects of the reassembly are obviously reattaching the six aperture blades, and the part that controls the aperture pin.  Once I got that done, I was really happy.  The problem with the Domiplan lenses are that over time, oil and grease cause the aperture blades to stick together, and the focus helical also becomes harder to turn.  So, using lighter fluid to degrease the aperture blades the the surrounding parts was an essential part of the fix.

Are Domiplan lenses THAT special?  Not necessarily, but the lens is a Cooke triplet based on a 1883 design by Taylor in the UK.  It is 3 elements in three groups, an inexpensive, yet very workable design also in other lenses.  Meyer-Optik Gorlitz produced the Domiplan and the Trioplan lenses with that formula.  

The Domiplan was the very basic, cheapest lens used on Exakta and Praktika cameras, all in East Germany.  Noted for its “bubble bokeh”, the Domiplan is not a fast lens at a maximum f/2.8 aperture, though it does stop down to f/22.  The complaint with this lens is the “automatic aperture”  design where the aperture actuation pin is depressed only when the lever inside the camera pushes against it at the time of the exposure.  The lens remains wide-open , no matter what aperture has been selected, until the moment of exposure. That makes focusing easier, of course.  It also makes it very difficult to adapt the lens to any other camera that does not have a way to depress the aperture pin, so you digital folks adapting the lens are generally stuck at shooting it wide-open.  Most lenses from that period have an Auto/Manual switch at the base of the lens so you can use them in stop-down mode.   Not this lens, though. 

However, since I am using an M-42 SLR body with this lens, it’s not a problem.  I can use the stop-down metering function that will activate the aperture pin, and allow me to meter the scene, and then just focus wide-open and make the exposure. Right now, I am using a Chinon CS-4 SLR that works well with this lens.  And that’s my goal - to shoot with this lens and see how it performs in a much better camera than that Exa 1a. 

Well, I shot a roll of Lucky 400 color film, and while doing so, I realized that I messed the alignment of the helicoid up and could not focus at infinity, which was one of the warnings in taking the lens apart.  However, I simply shot at f/16 or f/22 to address that when necessary. 

I still have a second Domiplan lens, and after cleaning THAT one, I reassembled the lens, and the aperture blades and focus helical work perfectly.  I’ll try shooting with that one at a later date. Anyhow, this post is about the results from lens #1.  I dropped off my roll of the exposed Lucy 400 at Ball Photo, and they developed the film.  I scanned the film with my Epson V700.

Here are some examples from that roll of film:

I'll try the second lens with b&w film and will post those later.

All photos below taken at the Asheville Botanical Gardens

A good example of the "bubble bokeh"

not as sharp at wider apertures, less infinity focus

When stopped down, no "bubbles"

It's Holga Week!

 It’s Holga Week, from October 1-7, and it’s a good time to shoot with that plastic-fantastic camera.   I’ve used Holgas since about 2002, and over time, I have figured out that it does not pay to obsess trying to get a “perfect” image from them.  You cannot get perfection from an imperfect device, but you can get satisfaction.  A Holga is a great way to take a photograph and be “in the moment” with it.  You come to appreciate its imperfections and are more aware of having a good composition over whether or not every other aspect is “perfect.” You can’t control the shutter speed, and the aperture selection is pretty minimal. But used in the right lighting with a film of 200-400 ISO, you will get something.  

Some people ask if the Holga is a good way to start in Medium Format.  I think it’s a good way to start with photography, period.  It lets you focus on what’s in front of you, and yes, you are going to make mistakes - such as not understanding the red window for the frame counter, having it set on Bulb instead of Normal, etc., but since the Holga 120N  has a tripod socket now and with B and N settings, you can take long exposures to make up for low-ISO films, low light, and so on.  Consider the Holga to be a pathway into making images with an impact.  They have a special quality that can make them stand out from the mundane digital perfection of a scene.  With 12 square images per roll, you try to make each one special.

If you want to see what can be done with a Holga, check out Michael Kenna’s fantastic work in his book HOLGA.  Also, check out the images from Neal Wellons on Flickr, who routinely uses a Holga for infrared photography.  

Last year, I took one of my Holgas along on a trip to Arizona, and shot a few odd Lomography films.  Oddball films re perfect with an oddball camera.  Here are a few examples.

Saguaro, Lomochrome Purple

Lowell, AZ, Lomochrome Purple

McD's Lomochrome Turquoise

Off I-40, near Holbrook, AZ. Fomapan 200

Route 66, near Grants, NM. Fomapan 200.

Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson, Rollei 400S, red filter

The Ultra-Wide and Slim travels

Back in August, I drove a 15ft U-Haul truck from Tucson, AZ back to Asheville, NC.  I've already posted on the trip here. Before the trip, I had mailed my film and my RETO Ultra-wide and Slim to my daughter in Tucson.  I hadn't used the UW&S for quite a while, and figured that it would be a fun thing to have with me for the trip back, in addition to my Pentax Spotmatic F and my digital Panasonic GF-1.  It had been several years since I used the RETO camera, and I did review it in 2022.

I put in a roll of expired Agfa APX 400 that my daughter had in her film stash, because I wanted a shorter roll in the UW&S. A 24-exposure roll is recommended for this camera.  It didn't matter if the film was expired - this is all for fun, and toy cameras are perfect for old higher-ISO films.  I didn't start shooting with it until our second day on the road, when I loaded it up in Grants, NM, where we had spent our first night.  

Since the camera has such a wide-angle of view, it's basically just aim and shoot, which I could do one-handed while driving the truck.  But that camera was the one I pulled out when we were refilling at gas stations and pit stops from New Mexico to Tennessee. We were on I-40 most of the way, with the occasional stretch of old Route 66. I think I made the most of my limited photographic opportunities.

Here is a sequence from the trip.

Filling up just E of Grants, NM in the morning of 8/25.

Traffic jam on I-40 in Albuquerque, thanks to a 4-car collision ahead.

At a rest stop E of Albuquerque

NM has some really interesting-looking rest areas.

I bought some souvenirs here in Tucumcari, NM

A little park to stop at and eat our our take-out lunch from Del's in Tucumcari.

A quick partial fill-up in Adrian, TX. 

A fill-up at Buc-ee's in Amarillo, TX. This must have been built since we were there in 2021.

A rest-area in Oklahoma

Oklahoma. It was damned hot AND humid there.

Arkansas

Major Tom, Weatherford, OK  and out-of sequence.

Somewhere in Tennessee. It was a long last day on the road.

October 15th Update:

I finally had the roll of Ilfocolor 400 developed that I'd shot with this camera.  Here are several images from the trip.

The building next door to the motel in Tucson.  

gassing up

Rest area on I-10, N of Tucson

Speedway Blvd in Tucson

Our quick stop in Flagstaff