Hey, I have a question about remjet-removed Kodak Vision films. I’ve been buying some local “homemade Cinestill” films lately, but the seller warned me not to keep them in the camera for too long, especially in high temperatures and especially when it comes to 250D — he said the film base changes its colour to deep red when exposed to heat which results in strong colour shifts. I’m wondering if you’ve come across anything like that. I’ll likely have to try it out myself, but maybe this is the reason why Cinestill 400D has apparently had some tweaks applied to it in addition to just removing the remjet — maybe they did something to it to prevent the film base discolouration.
To celebrate the release of this new emulsion, I spent weeks preparing an article about processing Phoenix films into slides using the most common chemicals in a photographer’s bathroom: Rodinal and a regular C-41 kit.
Expect unusual results and budget at least an extra 30 minutes of development time. This is an experimental technique for an experimental film; your results may vary. I’ve published a few starting times, temperatures, and dilutions that should yield decent results; I’ve also mentioned a few techniques in this article for improving your odds.
Good luck, enjoy the new film, and let me know what you think :)
In 35mm, Phoenix II still appears fairly grainy in high-resolution scans, yet it’s significantly smoother than other new small-batch film stocks (like Lomography Color’92, analog.cafe/r/lomochrome-c…).
Other than shooting the newer emulsion, there’s one more way to dramatically reduce grain on Harman Phoenix films: develop it as a slide film!
Unfortunately, the datasheets for either Phoenix films don’t share RMS or PGI numbers (both measure how “grainy” the film may appear. I suppose we’ll have to take Harman’s word when they say that Phoenix II has finer grain.
Of course, in medium format, it looks to have very fine grain.
Seeing sample photos alone may not reveal the changes Harman had implemented. Side-by-side comparisons can be helpful, but we don’t have those either.
Thankfully, I have spec sheets with film characteristic curves from both versions of this film, which reveal quite a bit of info about the changes the company made to Phoenix II.
The pink lines that illustrate the dynamic range of Phoenix II (drawn in colour), whereas the black lines are Phoenix I. The new film appears to have an extra stop of DR, which may result in slightly more detail in the highlights and shadows of high-contrast scenes. Though not as wide as that of Kodak Gold, a budget emulsion that offers 8 stops of dynamic range (analog.cafe/r/kodak-gold-f…), Phoenix II shows a significant improvement.
Another thing that those graphs reveal is the density of the negatives. On the right, the numbers indicate the level of opacity the film may exhibit once developed; note how the new film, Phoenix II, displays significantly less overall density. This can make scanning this film easier on some devices. Which is nice!
One of the key upgrades to Harman Phoenix is the contrast control and dynamic range extension.
Dynamic range is roughly the ability of film to simultaneously show detail in shadows and highlights. Films with low dynamic range may struggle to display details in both shadows and highlights in high-contrast scenes, even when the exposure is spot on. (More about dynamic range: analog.cafe/r/dynamic-rang…).
Low dynamic range isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For example, slide films are known for their low DR; while that does make shooting such films more difficult, they produce striking high contrast without the need to make any adjustments after scanning.
But when it comes to colour-negative films, traditional films like Kodak Portra 800 can have up to 12.5 stops of DR (analog.cafe/r/kodak-portra…), which would yield lower contrast but greater flexibility and ease of use.
Phoenix II, according to the datasheet, improves this piece of their emulsion by extending the dynamic range slightly, potentially making it an easier film to shoot.
A halation is the result of relatively bright points of light projecting through the semi-transparent film and then bouncing off a film pressure plate through the layers. Halation occurs to some degree on all films, which is why manufacturers usually include an anti-halation layer with their film (famously, Kodak Vision 3’s remjet: analog.cafe/r/how-to-remov…). Most films don’t use remjet; instead, their anti-halation layer is either dissolvable or integrated deep into the emulsion.
Halations can occur on black-and-white and colour films. Colour films without the remjet layer, like CineStill 800T (analog.cafe/r/cinestill-80…), and, notably, Harman Phoenix.
Harman must have experience with anti-halation layers (since they produce all Ilford-branded black-and-white films, which use anti-halation), which suggests that excluding this feature is a deliberate choice.
The halation effect has been a hallmark of all CineStill’s colour-negative products, and it now appears to be a permanent feature of Phoenix films.
Curiously, the halos on Phoenix films are somewhat orange, whereas CineStill’s are red. This may have something to do with the colour of the film base (CS is orange, Phoenix is purple).
Harman updates Phoenix 200 (II) with finer grain, improved colour accuracy, and wider dynamic range.
Ilford/Harman’s first colour film since the 1960s, this emulsion is a significant departure from the portfolio of black-and-white films, papers, and development chemicals at the UK factory plant.
Here’s how the reformulated Harman Phoenix II 200 compares to the original emulsion (reviewed here analog.cafe/r/harman-phoen…), according to their datasheet:
“Compared to the original Phoenix film, Phoenix II has a more normal contrast, colour balance and finer grain. It also has a wider exposure latitude and is more flexible and less radical than original Phoenix, yet still offers a different look and feel to mainstream colour films and should still be considered a creative, experimental film.”
This new film still renders halos (which appear to be a deliberate choice). The negatives are still purple, although, according to the characteristic curves, they should be less dense (possibly easier to scan).
Samples and discussion about grain, colour accuracy, and dynamic range up next.
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New on Analog.Cafe: Develop Phoenix 200 as a positive (slides), no E-6 chemistry needed! Just add Rodinal: analog.cafe/r/harman-phoen…
Retailers are struggling (and failing) to keep Harman’s “Blue” release a secret.
Several online stores published the product photos, name, description, and price ahead of the launch date. I’ve been hearing about the leaks since Sunday, but even more shops seem to have mistakenly published all the details ahead of time.
Many of the listings that leaked onto Google Search pages have been taken down, although some remain up, and one will even let you add it to the cart.
This is not new. I’ve seen brands and publishers I respect make the mistake due to the complexity or bugs in the scheduling software. As you can see in the screenshot, one of the indexed Google Search titles spells in all-caps “DO NOT ENABLE!!!” — perhaps a stern instruction that the machine or an employee ignored?
The actual release date of the “Blue” product is not public, although Harman has teased that it will be “soon” in their social media post today: instagram.com/p/DL-I2N1tngC.
I tried to cover up a few obvious giveaways in my screenshot, but a keen-eyed reader will have no trouble figuring this out (or you can just ask me). I am not bound by anyone to keep Harman’s products a secret; this is just for fun.
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Speaking of Harman and secrets, I’ve been working hard on a related project that I will try to release around the same time “Blue” comes out. Watch this space. #noSecretsSpilled
Note: I wrote about inverting film negatives manually in this post, analog.cafe/r/how-to-inver…, and offer a negative inversion product based on the above techniques here: film Q (analog.cafe/app/film-q)
CineStill introduces CS Negative+ Convert Tools with SpectraCOLOR™ — an Adobe Lr/Ps plugin for inverting film scans.
The technology behind CS Negative+ is “informed by the characteristic spectral sensitometric curves of traditional RA-4 darkroom prints and motion picture cinema projection prints.” Best of all, the plugins are free:
“The result is more accurate colors, better contrast, and a closer match to the original negative — all while reducing the need for complex color correction in post-processing.”
These Adobe plugins are the next iteration of CineStill’s film inversion product, which they had available on Instagram via Meta’s Spark AR platform (Meta has since discontinued the platform).
In their blog post, cinestillfilm.com/blogs/ne…, CineStill recommends using CS-LITE, a backlight for digital camera setup, calibrated for scanning film.
I got to try the plugins just before publishing this with Sony a7iii scans of my Mamiya RZ67 film. The workflow involves first selecting one of the “START” (CS Negative+ Convert) presets and then one or several of the “PROCESS” (CS Negative+ Tools) presets, and adjusting the settings to change variables like density, tint, etc.
I love PetaPixel’s take on this Fujifilm development.
I hope that they are right, and “It would be very bizarre to bring that [pages about formerly discontinued Fujifilm stocks] back online if the film is not truly back in production.”
My suggestion that this event was a bug does not exclude the possibility of a premature deployment. If that’s the case, we may be seeing three highly-regarded, discontinued Fujifilm stocks back on sale!
Unfortunately, the above listing has the expiry date blocked off, which says 2021-02 on the Canadian Walmart page for an identical-looking box, suggesting this is just old stock: walmart.ca/en/ip/Fujifilm-…
Other interesting leads were from folks comparing film datasheet IDs and contents. Alas, most concluded that those “new” documents are identical to the stuff Fujifilm published for the discontinued films we all miss very much: Superia X-Tra, C200, and Pro 400H.
Lastly, a response from Fujifilm Canada, “We have advised our brand manager and they will be taking care of the website,” seems to indicate that they will be taking those pages down.
A few small updates to navigation in Analog.Cafe v3.29.95:
- The “Settings” button on the bottom left is more consistent, so that it’s easier to sign in for returning visitors.
- The most prominent button on the top nav is now “Apps” (previously it was “News”). The news can still be easily reached from the homepage.
- I’ve changed how the “Apps” and “Tutorial” buttons look there. This is a cosmetic update, apologies to anyone who’s used to the old icons!
- Most apps now have three dots, ︙ , next to the title. Clicking those will bring up a menu with more info about the app, a way to refresh the screen, and a way to share the app.
If you have any suggestions or concerns, please let me know!
Fujifilm updates its film product listings, leading to some hope and confusion.
Reddit users found two updated pages on the Fujifilm website listing the discontinued Fuji Pro 400H and Fuji Superia X-Tra films. Several users confirmed seeing the update in their language versions of the page, except Japan.
Fujifilm Canada even gave an email response, but it still felt confusing as it stated, “Superia X-Tra 400 and 200 speed film are available for purchase. Unfortunately, Pro 400H has been discontinued.”
Fujifilm does not brand their new colour ISO 200 and 400 films as Superia X-Tra; instead, they are marked as Fujifilm 200 and Fujifilm 400. It’s possible that the employee who responded meant that the current film line-up is staying as-is, with no revival in progress, and simply made a mistake in the namings.
Indeed, many in the discussion suggest it’s a bug in Fujifilm’s CMS, which I feel is most likely.
In the past, Fujifilm reps teased a possible revival of the Pro 400H film, which has not (yet?) materialized.
Adox HR 50 costs around 7 euro here in Poland so almost the half of what Leica asks for it. I hope they will continue to sell it under the old brand at the same price. It’s ultra sharp and low grain film.
Jan Jakub Starzomski Jul 19, ‘25
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