Just out of curiosity, Lachlan. what's your view as to the timescale likely to be needed to get Phoenix to that point at which it is at or close to Kodak colour film?
Thanks
pentaxuser
As you have never got an answer to your question from anyone here, I will try my very best to give you an assassment as realistic as possible.
And that from the background that I had visited the Harman factory in Mobberley (with the amazing Simon Galley as our tour guide). And that I had also visited another four film factories, which all either already are producing colour film, or could produce colour film and have the plan or at least the long-term intention to produce colour film in the future.
The best we can do at first is to look at the recent (technically) successful attempts to re-enter the colour film market. There we have:
1. InovisCoat.
Founded by former Agfa (Leverkusen) engineers. They bought most of the film emulsion making machinery, and film coating machinery (K14) of the former Agfa factory in Leverkusen. A completely new factory building was constructed in Monheim, not far from Leverkusen. Operation started there in 2009. InovisCoat orginally did not want to go back (at least not completely) to film and photo paper production. Their long-term concept was to use modern coating technology outside the traditional film photo business. For example in the pharma industry.
But that was not as successful as planned, and already in 2011 they had their first insolvency. They lost their factory, which was bought by the main investors of "The Impossible Project" at that time, and the factory was then operated by their company Inovisproject (later The Impossible Project transformed into Polaroid, and Inovisproject as their daughter company has transformed into Polaroid Film GmbH). Polaroid is producing in Monheim the negative and positive film bases for their instant film. Assembling of these with the chemical pod and frame, as well as confectioning / finishing is then made in the Polaroid factory in Enschede, Netherlands.
After this first insolvency in 2011 InovisCoat continued operation. They had and have a contract with InovisProject / Polaroid which allows them to use the infrastructure of the Polaroid factory in Monheim at certain time slots for their own products. So the main assets of InovisCoat since then have been their knowledge / know-how, and the contract with Polaroid.
After the 2011 insolvency InovisCoat produced several film and photo paper products as OEM manufacturer for different brands. For example the "creative / experimental" colour negative films for Lomography like e.g. Lomochrome Purple, Turquoise, Metropolis. But meanwhile also the more "standard" film Lomochrome Color '92.
When I visited the factory in Monheim in 2019, InovisCoat was just in the final development phase of their so far best colour negative film product, an ISO 200/24° CN film with normal, traditional colour reproduction in the style of former Agfa Leverkusen films. That film was successfully coated a bit later. Also a bit later InovisCoat, together with FilmoTec in Wolfen, was bought by Jake Seal and his investment group. Shortly after that both companies went into insolvency.
The succesfully coated ISO 200/24° film was sold in the insolvency to another well known film brand, and is offered by them under their name.
If we now look at the time scale: InovisCoat needed about 10 years of R&D to produce a decent CN film.
Their advantages in comparison to Harman technology:
a) Access to a film factory which is state-of-the-art for color film manufacturing.
b) Agfa film technology knowledge (but not all of it).
Their disadvantages in comparison to Harman technology:
a) Very small R&D team.
b) Less funds.
c) No capability of own film confectioning for the formats 135, 120 and sheet film.
Now lets have a look at the second player:
2. Polaroid (former The Impossible Project).
They had the much much more difficult challenge, because they had to start from scratch. When the Impossible Project started in 2009, a new production of the former Polaroid integral film was impossible, as most of the raw materials were not available anymore.
The very first films The Impossible Project offered were more or less unusable because of that. With a bit of luck sometimes "a shadow of a picture" developed.
Instant integral film is probably the most complex and sophisticated chemical product available. 50 (!!) different chemical processes have to run, some of them one-after-the other, and others simultanously. It is both absolute chemical high-tech and a miracle that it works. Absolutely fascinating!
Despite the impossibility and all the huge difficulties the R&D team made progress, step-by-step. A big boost came when in 2015 Stephen Herchen of former Polaroid (one of the last R&D experts who still worked together with Edwin Land) entered The Impossible Project and became head of the R&D team. I got an insight of their R&D at the Enschede factory at my factory visit there, with a presentation by S. Herchen.
They made very significant progress over the years, and especially with their latest I-type film they now offer a very good quality, which has come relatively close to the excellent quality of Fujifilm instax instant film.
And if we now look here at the time scale: The Impossible Project / Polaroid needed about 12-13 years of R&D to produce a decent colour instant integral film. Starting from scratch.
Their advantages in comparison to Harman technology:
a) Access to a film factory which is state-of-the-art for color film manufacturing.
b) Much bigger R&D team.
Their disadvantages in comparison to Harman technology:
a) Much worse situation at the starting point. They had to start from scratch, Harman has a good basis and fundament with their XP2 Super.
b) Instant integral colour film is a much more difficult / sophisticated product then a standard colour negative film for C-41.
My assesment is that Harman technology will probably need 8-12 years to produce a decent colour negative film. Decent means a colour film with a good, natural colour rendition and a detail rendition (fineness of grain, sharpness, resolution) that comes close enough to a film like ColorPlus 200, so that customers will accept it for small and medium print sizes and scans viewed in normal size (without pixel-peeping) on a computer monitor.
R&D for a film with better detail rendition than that (quality level of a Gold 200, Fujifilm C200 or even Superia 200) will take many years more.
The target of a good, natural colour rendition will probably be reached at first.
Of course it depends on the means Harman technology can implement in that project. Financially, but especially concerning human resources. Additional chemists must be hired, and they have to be trained and educated as emulsionists (no university offers education in that tiny niche). So the training and education of these new chemists have to be done in-house by Harman, by their established experienced chemists / emulsionists. That binds partly capacity for a certain time. To become a very good emulsionist needs years.
Harman technology has started a "marathon" with this project. It is really a long-term endeavour.
Do I think they can make it in the long run? Yes, definitely! The spirit of the Mobberley team was really great and inspiring when I made the visit there. It was one the most interesting days in my life. I trust them.
And I will support them by continue buying Ilford BW films, and by continue buying their Harman colour films. And I will also continue to support further efferts by others in the market like ADOX and Film Ferrania. We need more variety in the market for a long-term healthy and sustainable colour film market.
Best regards,
Henning
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