The Whole Roll: Harman Phoenix 120 in Minolta Autocord MX

This will be a short post, but catering to a long list of 35mmc traditions. It is one of the responses to the “TLR Challenge” by Geoff Chaplin; a follow-up review of Harman Phoenix 120 by Hamish Gill, and part of the “One Whole Roll” series.

Now let’s start with the most important part: Harman Phoenix film in 120. I have been a big fan of the film in 35mm, due to its unique color palette. I shot many rolls, some in serious gear (Leica R5 and Elmarit-R 60/2.8 macro lens), some in toyish camera (Lomo LC-A and Pentax 17), and everything in between. I develop my own C41 film using Bellini chemistry, and have pretty good control over the process. The negatives are always beautiful to look at on a light table: deep purple hue on the base, sharp and contrasty images. But when it comes to scanning at home (Nikon Coolscan V ED), I initially had some issues like many online reviews. The contrast is bit too high, shadow details can be muddy, and there might be some orange/yellow tint to the images. Over time, I started to get better scans by improving my adjustments in Lightroom.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, Harman announced the availability of 120 format of Phoenix 200. I’m really thrilled to try it out. This is the second roll, shot with a Minolta Autocord MX (CLA’d by the well respected specialist Karl Bryan). I had the Autocord not for long, but already admired its excellent ergonomics and cracking lens. On a very sunny autumn day, I headed out to the harvest festival at the Filoli Gardens in Woodside, California. It was a perfect day: all I need was Sunny 16 rule, and everything are burst with color. I rated the film at ISO 100, as I usually do, so f/16 and 1/100s.

My development, scanning and post processing of 120 Phoenix is slightly different from those of the 35mm rolls:

• I used the recently re-issued fresh Kodak C41 chemistry, which is very affordable in 5L kit.
• I scanned on Epson V700 flatbed scanner, as slides/positives instead of negatives.
• I used Negative Labs Pro (default NLP Neutral settings) in Lightroom to invert the images.
• And the results are clearly the cleanest, most detailed, least grain, and most color accurate images I got out of the Harman Phoenix film! They retain the unique color palette of the Phoenix 200, without exaggerating orange. Even the shadows are pretty clean. Some of the photos do exhibit slight over-exposure by 1/2 stops, which is most likely due to the leaf shutter’s characteristics at small aperture and fast speeds. Or the Phoenix’s true ISO is somewhere between 100 and 200 in bright sunlight.Without much ado, here are the images from that roll.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  You can find more of my Phoenix photos on my Flickr album.

Share this post: