Harman Photo cryptic announcement/teaser

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Don_ih

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I'm guessing that if a new film has been used outside of Mobberley, then it is getting processed somewhere, and therefore any results are being kept under-wraps as well.

If it's a C41 film in a plain cassette (like a white one, for instance, simply labelled "C41"), it can be processed by any lab and they won't know what it is. It'd look like it could be film from a disposable camera.
 

Mike Crawford

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I'm guessing that if a new film has been used outside of Mobberley, then it is getting processed somewhere, and therefore any results are being kept under-wraps as well.
I've resisted so far adding to this bewildering thread, but if they need colour film processed, no problem as it's available in house at the Harman Lab in Mobberley! They've recently relaunched their website, which was mentioned last week on the Sunny 16 Podcast, but presume they've done colour for a while.

........or have they?😀
https://harmanlab.com
 

Dustin McAmera

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baffling with the Phoenix marketing...

The long-awaited announcement: 'Sadly the Mobberley silver mine is worked out, and we're all moving to Phoenix AZ. Thanks for everything. Tata!'
 

koraks

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I've resisted so far adding to this bewildering thread, but if they need colour film processed, no problem as it's available in house at the Harman Lab in Mobberley!

That's one more indication that it may really be a color film product.

I'd really be amazed if they pulled that off, all by themselves! I remain skeptical, but I'd also be enthusiastic if this mean there will be another viable manufacturer of C41 film on the market.
 

Flighter

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I've resisted so far adding to this bewildering thread, but if they need colour film processed, no problem as it's available in house at the Harman Lab in Mobberley! They've recently relaunched their website, which was mentioned last week on the Sunny 16 Podcast, but presume they've done colour for a while.

........or have they?😀
https://harmanlab.com

Yes, C41 is shown as offered in October 2017, the earliest date that a version of the harmanlab.com page had been archived by the Wayback Archive.
 

Ian Grant

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I've resisted so far adding to this bewildering thread, but if they need colour film processed, no problem as it's available in house at the Harman Lab in Mobberley! They've recently relaunched their website, which was mentioned last week on the Sunny 16 Podcast, but presume they've done colour for a while.

........or have they?😀
https://harmanlab.com

They offered C type prints, on Fujifilm DPII professional paper, as a new service in January 20212021, so they must have installed a second Fuji Frontier machine. Of course they have processed C41 XP2 films from the outset of their lab service, I think 2006.

If they were to launch C41 films they would need in house colour print processing to evaluate the films.

Ian
 

Ian Grant

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No, not really. Densitometry would suffice.

Yes new films are lab tested, but they are also field tested, Think of John Sexton's involvement with pre-release Tmax films, Ansel Adams with Polaroid. Harman sent out their Harman Direct Positive paper for pre-release testing.

Ian
 

MattKing

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On the colour film front, they appear to have film confectioning/finishing capacity available for hire.
So perhaps they are doing something like Lomography - getting Eastman Kodak to contract coat master rolls of colour film to Harman's specifications, and then attending to the confectioning/finishing, marketing and distribution of that.
 

koraks

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Yes new films are lab tested, but they are also field tested, Think of John Sexton's involvement with pre-release Tmax films, Ansel Adams with Polaroid. Harman sent out their Harman Direct Positive paper for pre-release testing.

Ian

Ian, those are B&W products. Of course field testing or some sort of trialing occurs on new products, regardless of what kind of product we're talking about. But testing color film with color prints is not exactly a requirement. In fact, with today's digitally-optimized papers, it's not even a very sensible thing to do. No doubt someone at some point chucks those negatives into an enlarger film stage, but it wouldn't make much sense to incorporate much of those 'tests' in product engineering.

The marriage between C41 and RA4 is effectively past tense. Unless someone manages to breathe new life into it, of course. But it'll have to happen from the paper side, not the film side.
 

4season

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Maybe the "rebirth" refers to the factory itself: I doubt that the current site has been producing anything close to the volumes it might have done routinely in the 1990s. A high-resolution color negative film would be awesome.
 

Agulliver

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On the colour film front, they appear to have film confectioning/finishing capacity available for hire.
So perhaps they are doing something like Lomography - getting Eastman Kodak to contract coat master rolls of colour film to Harman's specifications, and then attending to the confectioning/finishing, marketing and distribution of that.

They have explicitly said this is not a collaboration with any other company.
 

MattKing

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They have explicitly said this is not a collaboration with any other company.

I don't think buying something contract manufactured from a manufacturer - a master roll of photographic film - and then radically changing its nature - cutting it, cutting sprocket holes where required, edge printing it, either cutting sprocket holes, spooling it and putting it in light tight cassettes and/or adding backing paper and spooling it, constitutes a collaboration.

Otherwise their entire darkroom chemistry line would be a collaboration.
The Harman Titan cameras are a collaboration.
 

BrianShaw

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I really dislike the current style of marketing - cryptic posts on social media... but it really seems to work! Look at all of the discussion/publicity they got for free.
 

Flighter

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I really dislike the current style of marketing - cryptic posts on social media... but it really seems to work! Look at all of the discussion/publicity they got for free.

And I don't think it is even targeted at us!
 

warden

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I really dislike the current style of marketing - cryptic posts on social media... but it really seems to work! Look at all of the discussion/publicity they got for free.

I don’t like it either. It’s not free though - they’re investing time and money on working with their influencers and at least one launch event in the US, which ends up being one topic of discussion here and elsewhere no matter how silly their current IG account is.

It baffles me why Harman have yet to promote their own launch party in IG, but then again none of their IG presence makes sense to me so it’s par for the course. 😝
 

logan2z

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Engaging with young YouTube and IG influencers is a good choice.

It is. The ones featured in The Darkroom event have nearly 500K YouTube subscribers between them. That's as many followers as the ilfordphoto account on IG has, and dramatically more than the 4000 that the harmanphoto account has.
 

mshchem

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Maybe Ilford/Harman have put in a new coating line. Something that will separate film and paper lines? Back in the day, 50 years ago Ilford made color film for supermarket house brands, it's not impossible.

I suspect that this all revolves around a couple products that will fit into the social media people's world.

How about something as simple as Processing Included with Harman films? Color or Black and White.
 

pentaxuser

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I don't think buying something contract manufactured from a manufacturer - a master roll of photographic film - and then radically changing its nature - cutting it, cutting sprocket holes where required, edge printing it, either cutting sprocket holes, spooling it and putting it in light tight cassettes and/or adding backing paper and spooling it, constitutes a collaboration.
Yes but what you describe Matt hardly constitutes a new film does it? If its someone else's master roll then that only leaves being able to offer it at a cheaper price doesn't it as its only attraction

Certainly if there isn't a price advantage then it isn't much of a surprise as it becomes just another "new" film amongst the others we have seen recently

pentaxuser
 

pentaxuser

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And I don't think it is even targeted at us!

I think there is a lot in this Certainly Harman has made no secret of its aim at the younger demographic and it has dropped its "affair" with us since it became Pemberstone

Maybe what might underwhelm us on Photrio may well overwhelm those at whom the new product is aimed

pentaxuser
 
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