Pre-Dawn Photography with the NEW Phoenix 200 Color Film
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you’ve seen all of the hype about the brand new 35mm color film from Harman Technologies in the UK – Phoenix 200. Most notably known for their Ilford line of B&W film and paper, the folks at Harman created a brand new color emulsion and released it to the world on December 1st, 2023. No matter how you look at it, this is great news for the film photography world. As Fujifilm appears to be slowly exiting from color film production and sales, the addition of another manufacturer in the color market means that its no longer an apparent monopoly for Kodak. Don’t get me wrong – I have nothing against Kodak and love using many of their film stocks. It’s just that competition is good. It’s good for inspiring development and good for market/price competition.
Sprocket Rocket with Sparrow Fabrications Cable Release Adapter and the NEW Harman Phoenix 200 film
As soon as the film was available, I got my hands on a brick of 10 rolls with the thought of doing some long exposures at night in panoramic format. I also recently purchased a cable release adapter for the Sprocket Rocket from Sparrow Fabrications and was interested to give that a spin. One important note about the adapter - it is 3D printed and by nature a little thick. It’s held to the camera with the tripod socket, so that when you mount your tripod mount to it with the 1/4 20 bolt it holds everything together. Unfortunately the thick nature of the 3D part meant that my stock tripod screw was too short, so before I could get started I had to source a slightly longer screw. Not really a big deal, but something to keep in mind if you are purchasing one.
I made plans to get up early the next morning and head to downtown Dayton, Ohio to photograph some of the downtown scene with Christmas lights. When the alarm clock goes off at 4:30 in the morning it sometimes can be easy to just hit the snooze alarm but not this time! I had places to go and new toys to play with! I also grabbed a roll of Reflx Labs 800T film and loaded that into my F100 with my 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. I’ve never shot that film before so I figured this was as good of a time as any!
Reflx Labs 800T film
Usually these trips are a solo run for me, as no one else in their right mind would want to be out and about in the city at 5am in the morning. But this time Renee decided she would go with me, so after pouring some coffee into some “to go” mugs, we were off!
On the way I ran across two scenes I wanted to catch with the 800T, so I made a couple of stops.
Artifacts, Scratches, and Grain Oh My!
I have read on a few occasions about the Reflx 800T having some weird color streaks and scratches on it, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I saw similar issues with my roll. The blue things that look like lightning and the scratches were present in almost every frame. This is a definite departure from what I am used to with the Cinestill product. The QC processes and equipment might be different or less for the Reflx film. For all I know the remjet is removed by hand in the factory and also re-spooled by hand, which would explain things.
Next stop was the Carillon Bell Tower in Carillon Park. This is always a favorite spot of mine during the holidays when it is strung with lights and becomes the “Tree of Light”. The Carillon Tree of Light is the largest musical tree of light in Ohio, and stands 200 feet tall with over 20,000 bulbs. The panoramic images with the sprocket holes are the new Phoenix 200 film.
The Sprocket Rocket in action. Image courtesy of Renee Hopson
A quick word on how I shot the Phoenix 200. Although the box says the film speed is 200, interviews with engineers at the factory show they rate it around 133-ish. With that information, and knowing that most color film does best when giving it plenty of light, I rated the film at 125 ISO. Because the Sprocket Rocket generally best at its “sunny” setting which is approximately f/16, this meant there were some long exposures in order. For that I used the Reciprocity Failure chart in the data sheet and adjusted my shutter times accordingly.
Harman Phoenix 200 Reciprocity Failure reference chart
After Carillon, we stopped at the Sunrise Metropark near the 3rd Street Bridge and checked out the awesome lighting on the bridge.
Handheld shooting with the 800T - Nikon F100 w/24-70mm f/2.8 lens. This image and the blog header image courtesy of Renee Hopson.
Then it was just a few short blocks to the heart of downtown Dayton, where we parked next to the Arcade and started walking around. The Arcade has been going thru some major renovations over the last few years, and has really become once again a destination.
While we were downtown, Renee suggested that we go to Sinclair Community College to check out the lights on campus. Ordinarily I would avoid creeping around a campus in the wee hours of the morning for fear of being suspected of doing something wrong, but since Renee is a professor at the school I made an exception this time. It made me feel a lot less “creepery” having someone with me who belonged there. :)
It was about this time that it started raining, and since I had just finished both rolls of film, we called it and headed home for some warm food and waited out the rain. While I was stuck inside I developed both rolls in fresh UniColor C41 chems and scanned them on an Epson V600 flatbed scanner.
So what are my thoughts about the new film and adapter?
The Sprocket Rocket cable release adapter from Sparrow Fabrications was excellent. Gone are the days of needing to use a rubber band to make long exposures. The Sprocket Rocket still isn’t my “go to” camera when it comes to making quality panoramic images, but its fun to play around with occasionally and the adapter is another tool to that end.
The new Phoenix 200 film?
Well, hmm. It’s definitely a decent first try, but its not something I see myself shooting with very often. I think I want to get it out during some daylight hours with my F100 and see what it looks like under those conditions. This could be one of those films that’s a “catch and release” for me, where I try a roll or two and then sell the rest. We’ll see. Kudos to Harman for making something new, that hopefully improves over time. One other thing to mention is that the film sensitivity pushes into the Infrared Light spectrum above 700nm, so it may be an interesting experiment to shoot it in bright daylight with an Infrared R72 filter to see what results are possible.
What about the Reflx Labs 800T?
It’s not great. It’s not even good. The imperfections in the film just don’t work for me. It is a little cheaper than Cinestill 800T or Portra 800, but honestly the cost savings doesn’t make up for less-than-acceptable quality in my opinion. I have a few rolls left so I’ll give it another try, but like the Phoenix 200, this also could be a “catch and release” for me. I might be better off just shooting Portra 800 or try pushing Portra 400 to 800. I can’t see where it would be any worse than the Reflx Labs 800T. I won’t be purchasing anymore Cinestill because I refuse to support them going forward, so once I use up my stock of their film their “800T” won’t be an option for me if I need a high speed color film.
Have you shot either one of these films? What was your experience?
Please leave any thoughts or comments – I’d love to hear from you!
Happy Holidays, and as always thanks for reading.
Jeremy
