Completely agree with
@GabrielC above. I cannot fathom the negativity here. Harman are being completely open about what Phoenix is, and isn't. Maybe some of us got our hopes up regarding how close to "normal" it would be during the social media campaign but once it was revealed and explained, I was one of those who took the plunge and bought some. Not because I think it's the greatest thing since sliced Kodachrome, but because I want to try it and to support Harman in their ultimate goal of making something that is on a par with Kodak's offerings.
I am unsure if they could actually have made a very small batch....don't they have a minimum master roll size? But that's beside the point. We all know the financial numbers if we actually care enough to look....because Harman are obliged to make publicly available annual accounts. They've been picked over in this very thread. Harman are a healthy company, though not swimming in profits. They are in no way struggling and suggesting they might be close to insolvency is frankly both ludicrous and insulting.
It's really quite simple. Harman could quite happily have continued making the B&W products and a few sidelines such as the dark tent. They'd have gone along quite healthily for the foreseeable future and likely beyond. But seeing as consumer grade C41 film is both popular and in short supply, with Kodak effectively being the only coater now, they decided to diversify their business into colour film. That does require a lot of R&D and it will take time to perfect. Part of the R&D funding will come from sales of the Phoenix film.
If you don't want to buy Phoenix now, that's perfectly understandable and reasonable. If you do, that's also perfectly fine. But ask yourself this.....would you prefer a world where Harman stuck to B&W alone, or at least tried to make colour film? Because those are your two choices. You don't have to take part in the journey by buying the experimental film over the next few years, but you also don't have to poo-poo the project.
Only Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, Konica and perhaps Ferrania ever mastered production of C41 film. Four or five companies which were *huge* and investing tens of not hundreds of millions into R&D at the time. Harman may be the world's second biggest film manufacturer these days but they're still tiny compared to those behemoths of decades past. In those days, those companies could afford to "waste" the experiments that weren't up to scratch. Harman likely can't....and that doesn't mean they're in financial trouble, it simply means they're not a huge multinational company able to spend many millions on R&D on one product for several years running before seeing any return. You can bet that the money raised from selling Phoenix goes into further R&D and incremental steps towards making a film we'd all like to buy. Nobody in the film manufacturing world is getting rich. Nobody is in it to cream off the profits. Because even Eastman-Kodak are running on something like a 5% profit margin. And they're the biggest, most successful company currently in the business.
This is a journey, and we're all welcome to follow either as observers or as participants. Or choose not to follow. But sniping and making false allegations about Harman's finances is, IMHO, not on. By all means criticise what you see in Phoenix because it's clearly not a "normal" film and isn't suitable for every day use. It works in the specific circumstances Harman recommend. Outside of that, it's a crap shoot. But they are clear about that crap shoot. They're not even doing the Lomography spiel of coming up with some inventive hype. Harman have basically said "Here it is, here's how we think it's best used....have fun". I had fun with my first roll but am unsure what I'll do with my second. But I will shoot it, and probably have fun doing so.