Harman Photo cryptic announcement/teaser

Status
Not open for further replies.

Prest_400

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
1,438
Location
Sweden
Format
Med. Format RF
Ilford Photo are advertising Harman lab's services through an Instagram story. The background image seems from color negative and has an interesting color pallette...

Pure speculation follows could it well be a sneak peek of the hypothetical product we speculate about?
This shot looks like from Lomo Metropolis and exhibits some characteristics of a simple C41 film as to how Photo Engineer (bless him) described when metropolis was released.


 
Last edited by a moderator:

BrianShaw

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
16,531
Location
La-la-land
Format
Multi Format
Perhaps Harman has bought Swann/Darkroom and will completely rebrand solely under the Harman name.
 
Last edited:

BrianShaw

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
16,531
Location
La-la-land
Format
Multi Format
That actually looks like an AI colorization of B&W image to me. AI should learn more about skin tones…
 

Dustin McAmera

Subscriber
Joined
Feb 15, 2023
Messages
601
Location
UK
Format
Multi Format
I think Prest_400 has it right. Metropolis is supposed to offer us 'muted tones with intense pops of colour', per the blurb at lomography's shop. Some of the gallery photos they have show similar colours, though the effect seems to vary quite a bit; I guess in part because they give its speed as 100 - 400.

(edited to add: I didn't mean to diss the film there. Mostly I like to know more or less what I'm going to get, and mostly I photograph to show you what the world looked like. I don't often try to construct effects. But there might be days when I would use a roll of this stuff.)
 

BrianShaw

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
16,531
Location
La-la-land
Format
Multi Format
If that’s it, I now completely understand their marketing scheme. That’s nothing I’d be thrilled to try or use.
 
Last edited:

FotoD

Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2020
Messages
390
Location
EU
Format
Analog
Maybe they are releasing a tungsten balanced C41 film. I don't know of any left on the market today, so it could qualify a Phoenix rising from the ashes.

Could be useful if it's fast enough for indoor use. And they can sell a Harman warming filter for shooting outdoors.
 
Last edited:

Agulliver

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2015
Messages
3,567
Location
Luton, United Kingdom
Format
Multi Format
That image does look a bit like an attempt to make a tungsten balanced negative shot in daylight look acceptable by editing.

I would not expect Harman to produce a tungsten balanced colour film. The "mass" market for photographic film at the moment is 35mm amateur C41 film such as Color Plus, Gold 200, Ultramax, Fuji C200 and Fuji Superia 400. That's also where the big supply issues remain, with Kodak unable to supply sufficient confectioned films and Fuji apparently selling Kodak coated film.

I do hope that image is not representative of what's coming on December 1st. And of course I remind everyone, we have no real reason to assume that it is.

I am not seeing that story over at Ilford Photo on Instagram, but perhaps it has now been replaced with another story. There seems to be no way to view a story once it has expired.
 

brbo

Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
2,108
Location
EU
Format
Multi Format
I'm just shocked that anyone would post a picture like that in a promotional material... Except Lomo, maybe.
 

BrianShaw

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
16,531
Location
La-la-land
Format
Multi Format
Given the changes to interior lighting bulbs/technology, wouldn’t a tungsten-balanced film be quite limited in terms of utility, today and even more limited in the future? Tungsten balance made sense back in the olden days of hot lights but who’s using them now??
 

bfilm

Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2023
Messages
336
Location
Texas
Format
Multi Format
I also very much hope that image is not representative of the new film. It looks bad. If they are making a consumer C-41 color negative film, Fujifilm Superia is probably the best there is, and it still appears to be available in Japan. It would be nice to have something similar available again in other parts of the world, and I would hope that Harman would create a high quality, accurate film and not something with a novelty effect.

https://www.fujifilm.com/jp/ja/consumer/films

https://www.fujifilm.com/jp/ja/consumer/films/negative-and-reversal

I don't mean to suggest there is a collaboration with Fujifilm. We already know this is an independent Harman film. I just mean that something closer to Fujifilm Superia would be nice as opposed to something with a novelty effect.
 

koraks

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Nov 29, 2018
Messages
22,938
Location
Europe
Format
Multi Format

Most indoor / household LED is still balanced sort of similarly to tungsten. I say 'sort of', because there are differences if you look at the spectral distribution even if the color temperature is still in the high 2000's to low 3000s generally. Notably, LED tends to have a bulge in the blue part of its spectrum around 450nm and then a dip that only recovers once you get in the green part, while an incandescent bulb has a much more gradual rise up towards the red part of the spectrum. This means that there will be differences between the same exposure made on tungsten film illuminated with a 2700K LED vs. a 2700K tungsten bulb. However, in both cases, a tungsten-balanced film will overall give a better result than a daylight balanced film under those conditions.

So the niche is still there like it used to be. The main thing that has changed in terms of film, of course, is the dominance of scanning and hybrid workflows that make even a very compromised tungsten-illuminated capture on daylight-balanced film somewhat salvageable. It'll remain a compromised affair, but for most consumers, it'll be good enough.

bfilm said:
Fujifilm Superia is probably the best there is, and it still appears to be available in Japan.
Click to expand...

The question though is if it's still being coated there, which I doubt. But who knows. It's offtopic anyway. I do agree that another properly working C41 film like Superia would be nice to have. Not that there's anything wrong in particular with Kodak's offering, but it's nice to have options.
 

Mike Crawford

Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
614
Location
London, UK
Format
Medium Format
I should think that photo has nothing to do with the new product, whatever that may be, and doubt if they are being so secretive till December 1st that Harman would have allowed it to be used. However, seems to have sparked up more deep analysis and suppositions here!
 

cerber0s

Subscriber
Joined
Nov 16, 2020
Messages
605
Location
Sweden
Format
Multi Format

It seems like Kodak Portra is all the rage in the photo influencer community. I’d expect an ISO 400 film in Portra flavour.
 

Prest_400

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
1,438
Location
Sweden
Format
Med. Format RF
LeoniD said:
I'd love to read that. Do you have a link?
Click to expand...

New Metropolis film on kickstarter from Lomo!

Well this is interesting. Do you think it's an all new film? http://newsletter.lomography.com/api/v1/clickme/o5mnhnawihls3nuldakovzhea48/-norydzl5gkonzyncotcgdf9u2g/wsctwpxgsodvnaeu5fkdyev9vaa Anyway, I backed it. Looks fun and interesting. And Lomo is one of those companies that actually...
www.photrio.com

He had great insights, now top of mind I recall he elaborated on more.

I just shared Harman's story as, imagine if it were it and hiding in plain sight. But also, hope for a high quality product and not just a borderly ok effort, as Metropolis was at the time.
 

bfilm

Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2023
Messages
336
Location
Texas
Format
Multi Format
It seems like Kodak Portra is all the rage in the photo influencer community. I’d expect an ISO 400 film in Portra flavour.
Click to expand...

As far as the professional color negative films, I preferred Fujifilm Pro 400H to Kodak Portra 400, but something similar to Portra would certainly be preferable to anything like the above image.

Personally, I am still kind of hoping it might be a color reversal film. And if so, hopefully something nice that could complement Fujifilm Provia 100F and Kodak Ektachrome E100.

I am also hoping it is on an acetate base like Harman usually uses and not a polyester base like some are using now.
 

bfilm

Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2023
Messages
336
Location
Texas
Format
Multi Format
I know that polyester is supposed to have potentially better archival characteristics, but I prefer the more traditional and natural acetate base. Additionally, while I know that photography cameras do not work at the speeds that motion picture cameras do, motion picture camera film is always acetate, partly because it is not as strong as polyester, and they prefer the film to break instead of the camera if there is a jamb. Motion picture cameras are very expensive, as is lost time in production while the camera is repaired or a new one readied and brought in. So, even with the slower or more manually controlled mechanics of a photography camera, the idea that acetate film might better protect the camera is also a benefit.
 
Last edited:

bfilm

Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2023
Messages
336
Location
Texas
Format
Multi Format
Perhaps of interest, as far as I know the two main manufacturers of cellulose triacetate for photographic film base are:

Island Polymer Industries, Germany
https://www.islandpolymer.com/tac-for-photographic-purposes

Daicel Corporation, Japan

Cellulose Acetate｜Daicel Corporation

It is a highly biodegradable material that is friendly to the environment and the human body.
www.daicel.com

It seems like a good possibility that Harman gets acetate base from Island Polymer Industries. Daicel started supplying Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. with acetate base in 1953.
 

Arcadia4

Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Messages
319
Location
UK
Format
Multi Format

Yes i understand ilford are supplied by ipi, which is the original agfa/orwo wolfen film base facility. EK also used to produce acetate base and stated they stockpiled a large volume when that line was closed down. Their shift to polyester makes sense as they can still produce it in house rather than rely on imports, but presumably now rely on buying in acetate for movie film
 

Arcadia4

Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Messages
319
Location
UK
Format
Multi Format
Photographer Marcus Mcadam based in Skye (Scotland) posted a picture of his 35mm film camera stating it contains a new film from Harman he’d been sent a couple of rolls to test.

‘As you can see, I’m getting ready to shoot a few environmental portraits of a gamekeeper, to see how it handles the tones and textures of the scene’.

He covers film / analog photography in the ‘photography show‘ on youtube, but has been around long enough to remember when film was photography.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…