Harman Phoenix - 120 Film

The 35mm version of Phoenix really didn't work well for me, but this 120 variant is really fun. I've bought a bunch more rolls and I'm looking forward to what I'll capture on them. The grain is perfectly nice and the halation better controlled on 120, and I have no issues about shooting this more often. It's definitely a harder stock to shoot, but I think that when you nail it the shots can come out really, really nice.

I've noticed I'm getting very different results to a lot of people, so I figured I'd leave a few notes on what I've done.

1. I think this benefits from older lenses. I shot these examples on a Rolleiflex T, and the light bloom and lowered contrast when shooting into the sun really help give it an interesting vibe.

2. Softer and diffuse light seem to benefit this stock enormously. With its lower latitude you in theory want to avoid high contrast scenes, but I also think those scenes have the greatest opportunity for a fantastic shot. Golden hour street shots are my suggestion - the tones are great for the city and really give it a cosy feeling.

3. I scanned it myself using a camera and then processed it in NLP. For each of these shots I made only minor adjustments, but one of the major ones was lowering the contrast somewhat and disabling NLP's white balance correction entirely (I still white balanced before converting, to remove the purple mask, as normal).

Even still, not every shot is coming out great. It's a pretty tricky stock and nailing the exposure is a challenge. I agree with others saying to shoot this at ISO 160 - I think that's just enough overexposure to put detail in the shadows without blowing the highlights too far. I'm using incidence metering myself and having a reasonable amount of success.

It's great to have an alternative to Kodak Gold on 120, and I love the colours (most of the time).

If you love a good grainy look and punchy colours with a retro feel you have found your film, also it is Ilford pioneering colour so worth supporting. What you don't get is a lot of exposure latitude or much really! so if you want shadow detail this is not going to do it for you, unless you are in even light conditions or studio lighting for example. I like its look so these shots show what to expect in harsh high contrast light.

First roll of Phoenix was 35mm and this time I wanted to try 120 roll. So a roll went into my Mamiya C220.

Phoenix can do some interesting things with colours and leans towards reds rather strongly, though everything tends to look very saturated. I shot some very dark purple flowers this time to see how they would be rendered, but it was almost as though the film ignored them because there were some red Begonias in the foreground.

Pheonix isn't entirely easy and predictable film in use. Probably a few rolls to get used to it. Latitude seems less than more well known colour films and I find highlights will blow quite easily. The blown highlights can though somehow work in the general scheme of things with this film.

A particular strength seems to be flowers and it can impart a vibrant and slightly surreal look. I didn't quite pull it off on this roll the way I did with an old Exa on 35mm, but flower shots can end with a more abstract painterly look.

For me, this film lends itself to experimentation and more creative ideas. I wouldn't use it if I wanted to record a landscape in a crisp accurate manner. Phoenix seems to suit strong light and a touch of over exposure. You may not be delighted with the results from the first roll, but it is worth coming back to. Maybe save it for sunny days and recognisable subjects because they'll look different on Phoenix. I have given Phoenix four stars mainly as it doesn't suit a wide variety of situations. Phoenix does though have real character.

For my next roll I think I'll want to try it at night, that could be really interesting.

This film is certainly experimental and so you can't necessarily expect consistent results. Personally, I really like that. The colours are generally bright and vibrant, with a few quite interesting results when over- or under-exposed. If you want some fun colours try accidentally pointing your camera straight at the sun haha. I think for the price point this is quite a good film, if you don't mind taking a few risks in terms of developing. I think I'd probably buy it again.

Harman touts this as an experimental film, so I thought I'd try something experimental with and, yes, it works. Being a 120 film the neg size is bigger which makes the grain smaller and the images that much better.