The Rise of the Phoenix 200
Along with most of the photography world, I got swept up in the excitement of the upcoming release of the Phoenix 200 colour film from Harman Photo. If you shoot film, you likely have not been able to escape the enthusiasm surrounding the development and release of this film by Harman. Unlike many other recent releases, Phoenix 200 is a completely new film stock. What that means is that this is not a film that is developed under another name that has been rebranded, this film has been created whole by Harman. This is a big deal, as over the last few years the big players, Kodak and Fujifilm, have been cutting back on their production and selection of colour films. The only other completely new colour films that have been released in recent memory are Orwo NC500 and Cinestill 400D. That said, the Orwo film was based on a previous emulsion. I reviewed both of those films last year and you can read the post here.
Harman Photo has been very upfront with photographers that this film is not perfect, it is a stepping stone, experimental film that will pave the way for them to fine-tune their work and produce a better result.
The film was released to the public on December 2, 2023 and Victoria’s best photography store, Camera Traders, had it available by December 8th. I was in right away and picked up three rolls. So far I have just shot the first one, I gave one roll to my son, and I have one for the right occasion in the near future. I thought I would give you my first impressions from that first roll. What is interesting about it; what is challenging about it; and what I would do differently next time. I have also included a few of the photos from that first roll, though I was using it through the holidays and have not included the many family shots that were on it.
When I am shooting any new kind of film there is an excitement that comes with it as you really don’t know what it is going to turn out like. I just focus on my exposure and see what will happen. For this film, from seeing some of the discussions online, I knew it was going to be grainy, contrasty and that it didn’t have an anti-halation layer so it would do some weird things with direct light. I was hoping for it to give a pretty retro film feel and I think it does that. I would say that managing your highlights is going to be the biggest challenge and I certainly know that I could have done better. Many of the shots are completely blown out and that even happened when shooting in pretty cloudy conditions. I think that you are going to want your exposures to be well lit but try and keep your bright whites down in the shot. I tried a couple of shots where there was less light and those really came in quite underexposed. I am feeling like the latitude is more akin to shooting slide film, so keep your exposure balanced and again stay away from the bright whites. I do think that there is a lot of opportunity to play with the lack of an anti-halation layer. In the shot of the Irish Times and the ones in a forested background you can see how cool the light is. So a well composed and exposed shot using those starbursts of light to your advantage could likely result in something pretty interesting.
If you are looking for something fun to try in your film camera, I would definitely give Phoenix 200 a chance. Even if it totally doesn’t work out you can feel good about the fact that you are helping the heroes at Harman Photo in developing the next colour emulsion.
Have you shot some of the Phoenix 200? Discovered any tips or tricks? Let us know in the comments!