After starting a campaign all over the social media, it looks someone found a leak, apparently Harman is releasing a new version of theirs Phoenix colour-negative film, aptly named Phoenix. It’s arriving on 16th of July 2025.
Harman Phoenix is a colour-negative film, an evolution of the original Phoenix. According to the leaked info, it will have “improved contrast, grain, highlight/shadow retention, and sharpness”. It’s arriving in both 135 and 120 formats, it uses the standard C41 processing, it’s DX-coded to ISO 200, and should works best rated between ISO 100 and 200.
Leaked Harman press release indicates it is a completely redesigned and reengineered film, with new dyes, couplers and “even an experimental layer construct”. It will be “less bold and unpredictable than the original”, but it should offer “plenty of character”, with “improvements to contrast, grain and sharpness”, all helping it to “retain shadow and highlight detail, and enable more flexibility in exposure latitude”.
Also, scanning should be easier and more predictable, but still, “the final look will vary based on the scanner used”.
Commentary
Having used the original Phoenix, I can confirm it is a high-contrast film, with pronounced grain and limited dynamic range. It is also not a very sharp film — despite the proven, sharp lens used appropriately, all my photos were simply not very sharp. They weren’t blurry, just uniformly not sharp. Despite its high contrast, scanning it was as easy as any other colour-negative film, it didn’t need manual corrections or tweaks — VueScan and Plustek scanner did an admirable job. So, with this new announcement, I am having second thoughts because of all that improved dynamic range and “less bold” look, I’m concerned the new emulsion might lose its uniqueness and appeal. On the other side, I have no doubts it will definitely gain a lot of new users, exactly because of those issues were plaguing users of the existing, original version of the film.
Official announcement is in two days — 16. 7. 2025. — let’s wait and see what Harman has to offer!
