Category: Film

Harman Phoenix II

Harman just announced Phoenix II, the successor of Phoenix, their experimental colour negative film. Phoenix II replaces the “limited edition” Phoenix, improving on colour rendition, and offering more exposure latitude. Available in both 120 and 135.

Don’t have it, so I can not tell. But here is from around the web:

– Petapixel Harman Phoenix II is a Brand-New Color 35mm and 120 Film Stock, presenting the Harman promotional images taken by various early recipients.

– JCH Film News: Harman Phoenix II rises with a few pictures.

– Kosmofoto Harman Technology releases Phoenix II colour negative film, followed up by First rolls: Harman Phoenix II (35mm) and First rolls: Harman Phoenix II (120).

If you liked Phoenix (the red box) then stock up. It is until supplies last.

Previously: New films

New films

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the camera, Leica announced their own branded film, the Monopan 50. It’s a 50 ISO black & white 35mm film, made in Germany. It has a lot in common with the Adox 50. It is likely to cost US$10 (£10/€12) a roll while the Adox HR-50 is priced at US$7.50 to be available in August 2025. I haven’t found a Canadian price yet.

In February Recently Harman Technologies released the Harman Red. Now Kosmofoto tells us it is being made in 120. Like with Phoenix, it’s always good to see them follow-up on medium format.

New Harman Red

Harman Technologies announced the Harman Red 125.

It’s a 35mm “redscale” negative film in the standard C-41 process. It’s a new emulsion based of the Phoenix colour film. Rated at 125 ISO it can be shot between 50 and 400 ISO for different effect. It comes in a 36 exposure roll.

DPReview has some more info.

Glad to see Harman investing in new films.

Kodak to clamp down on bulk loading

Apparently Kodak Alaris decided to restrict the sale of colour film in bulk, unless you are a movie production.

No more respooling to save on costs, which is what a lot of reseller were doing. Paying US$8-9 for a roll of Ektachrome instead of US$22 from Kodak was a significant saving.

As Kosmofoto reports, Reflx Lab says that its respooled colour film might not last long including the Cine film.

All of this coincide with them being sold to a private equity. Correlation is not causation, but coincidences are rare.

Previously: Kodak price updates and Kodak pauses film production for factory upgrades.

News: Kodak price updates

Kosmophoto tells us Kodak Alaris announces price rises for January 2025 – but Tri-X is getting cheaper:

In contrast to previous price increases, the majority of price increases will under 10%, with most falling between 5% and 8%.

It’s a mixed bag, some film raising in prices and some falling, with 120 rolls rising more than 135.

To be continued…

Previously: Kodak pauses film production for factory upgrades, Fujifilm film price increase, Price hike on Kodak film

News: Kodak pauses film production for factory upgrades

The Verge signals us that Kodak pauses film production for factory upgrades to help meet demand:

Eastman Kodak has temporarily paused all film production. The news comes as part of a shutdown in November allowing the company to upgrade and modernize its Rochester, New York factory,

I tried to not make the headline click-bait, like the bits I saw earlier this week.
This is actually a good news in which Kodak need to pause production to better produce, due to increased demand. Increased demand is good, as it means film is alive.

From Kosmo Photo:

In 2020, Eastman Kodak said demand for film had doubled between 2015 and 2019, after a decade-long period of decline following the start of consumer digital photography.

Let’s hope this is a positive signal from the previous news of Kodak photo businesses being sold to private equity.

Link: The magic of Fuji Frontier SP-3000

Sebastian Schlüter wrote in 2018 about The magic of Fuji Frontier SP-3000.

Fuji Frontier is the product line moniker for minilab solutions from Fujifilm. In the early 2000 their minilab Fuji Frontier was the reference for film processing and printing, and one of its main attribute is that the printing phase was done digitally. Instead of optically enlarging the image, you put the source film transparency into the scanner, and it will print the images on photographic paper (RA-4 process). And the SP-3000 scanner, the latest model that was part of that minilab system, is still thought after as it produces high quality images out of the box. This was part of the magic (that can’t be distinguished from technology). Just to add how this was revolutionary, it allowed producing mini contact sheets, and it allowed printing slide film without intermediate negative or without inversible (positive) photographic paper. As a business, you could charge 5-10$ extra to store the scans used to print on a CD. Your 1 hour photolab likely used one of these, or its competitor like Noritsu, Agfa or Kodak.

One of the key point of the Frontier is that is does its work fast and automatically. Scanning is always a lengthy process and hard to tune to get good results. The Frontier integrates all of that. Other alternatives are Noritsu who offers a higher resolution, and Kodak Pakon, that requires 20+ years old Microsoft Windows XP to drive it, but is much smaller. Acquisition costs for a Frontier SP-3000 starts at CA$6,000 on the used market and the device takes a huge amount space, so does the Noritsu, and have the same requirement for maintaining the same operating system.

The film to digital workflow is either expensive, slow or poor quality. DSLR scanning provides a good DIY alternative that is reasonably priced if you already have the camera and a proper setup rival dedicated film scanner on many aspects.

Previously: How film commercial processing and scanning is done

The Widelux Revival Project

From 2023, The Widelux Revival Project on SilvergrainClassics.

It is about a new venture started by two members of SilvergrainClassic and Susan and Jeff Bridges (yes that Jeff Brigdes) to recreate the Widelux. Jeff Bridges started using it in 1984, bringing on set a Widelux F8 camera to shoot behind the scenes, portraits and others. And like any vintage camera, they are getting old and will fail, if they are not outright temperamental, with little options to get spare parts.

A camera viewed from the front with a lens inside a slit. On the top of the camera, various knobs and a viewfinder in the right.
Widelux F7 panoramic camera – by Kenneth C. Zirkel – CC BY-SA 4.0

The design of the Widelux is rather unusual, and its Japanese manufacturer ended production in 2000. It’s a camera with a swinging lens to shoot 126 degrees wide on 135 film, or on 120 film. Jeff Bridge’s use of it was unusual as it’s a camera aimed at landscape photography to be used on a tripod as the shot take a couple of seconds at 1/15 shutter speed. This is unlike the Fujifilm TX-1 / Hasselblad X-Pan.

The Widelux F7, using 135 film, did cost US$750 in 1988, while the Widelux 1500, using 120 film, cost US$4,500.

The German Noblex and Russian Horizon were similar in function.

Time will tell if the revival happens. This require a great deal of re-engineering and the result will probably be quite expensive, both as it is niche and likely costly to make.