Harman releases special effects color films

[thinkbrown]

This is great! Hopefully one day, once they have perfected Phoenix, we'll see it in sheet film sizes!

I asked in the comments and Harman said they didn't see why they wouldn't, but no promises for this year

 

[bfilm]

yes i am with you. But over all very positive, maybe my kids will talk about this very strange digital age in their youth ;-)

Wouldn't that be nice. We can hope.

 

[Ian Grant]

I was rather disappointed by Harman's initial colour offerings, and there seemed to be no logical apparent route forward.

However, this new video completely overturns that, and I think most importantly they have been building up a fresh younger team of enthusiastic researchers.

Let's see what the future brings.

Ian

 

[pentaxuser]

I agree, this is a delightful video, not the usual corporate crap, but letting real people tell their story. And great to see that the scientists in R&D are not boring middle-aged males! And I love the not-very-clean lab-coats,

I wonder if the change to boring middle-aged males from more interesting and youthful males is simply a genetic change that the males have no control over?

As far as the not very clean lab coats are concerned this reflects my sentiments over large garage bills. I always regard these as authentic as long as the bill is smeared with a touch of grease. I then know that honest work must have taken place

I think that what Harman is doing is fine, it's just that boring and middle age or not very clean lab coats may not in themselves be much in the way of bad or good signs

pentaxuser

 

[Agulliver]

What a refreshingly open video. And confirms everything we hoped.

Also....as someone who works in laboratories....I never saw a clean lab coat once it had been used a couple of times. Even boil washing the things doesn't render them white again. Par for the course.

 

[isaac7]

What a refreshingly open video. And confirms everything we hoped.

Also....as someone who works in laboratories....I never saw a clean lab coat once it had been used a couple of times. Even boil washing the things doesn't render them white again. Par for the course.

Makes me wonder why white lab coats are still used. Nurses used to wear white and you could bleach the hell out of them to get them back that way. Doubt you’d want to risk bleaching lab coats. I’d think that rubber aprons would be better, just like darkrooms.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I think that what Harman is doing is fine, it's just that boring and middle age or not very clean lab coats may not in themselves be much in the way of bad or good signs

Dunno about the rest of the folks, but they have employed advertising genius

 

[Agulliver]

Makes me wonder why white lab coats are still used. Nurses used to wear white and you could bleach the hell out of them to get them back that way. Doubt you’d want to risk bleaching lab coats. I’d think that rubber aprons would be better, just like darkrooms.

To protect one's regular clothes that we wear underneath. Chemicals can stain, burn, etc....and a white lab coat helps the lab worker know what's been spilled on it.

Rubber would be dangerous due to reactions with certain corrosive chemicals. Concentrated sulphuric acid, for example, will simply dissolve the rubber and burn through the regular clothes and get to the skin. A thick lab coat will prevent this. They're not worn as a fashion statement but as PPE.

 

[cmacd123]

the interesting thing to me was that besides the machine to make cassettes, which we knew about, they have also built entire automated setups to convert and finish both 120 and 35mm. I guess that the old ones they were using were no longer up to the task.

 

[isaac7]

the interesting thing to me was that besides the machine to make cassettes, which we knew about, they have also built entire automated setups to convert and finish both 120 and 35mm. I guess that the old ones they were using were no longer up to the task.

I got the impression that the upgrade also set them up for higher capacity. With any luck they will be able to use that extra capacity not only for their increased sales but also for finishing and packaging other brands as well.

 

[MattKing]

Eastman Kodak decommissioned and discarded a whole bunch of their finishing capacity when the precipitous downturn in film caused them to massively decrease their film making capacity.
It took them a few years to determine that:
1) that the film business was actually going to continue - their projections were that it didn't have much time left; and
2) that the reduction in finishing capacity went too far.
My understanding is that the older equipment was also based on really old software and computer technology, and the newer stuff is much more modern and efficient with the current volumes.
Prior to the downturn, they were manufacturing upwards of 70 master stockrolls a day of Kodacolor…each and every day – enough to make nearly 3.4 million spools each day. The systems and equipment and staffing need to be entirely different than in days of yore.

 

[isaac7]

Eastman Kodak decommissioned and discarded a whole bunch of their finishing capacity when the precipitous downturn in film caused them to massively decrease their film making capacity.
It took them a few years to determine that:
1) that the film business was actually going to continue - their projections were that it didn't have much time left; and
2) that the reduction in finishing capacity went too far.
My understanding is that the older equipment was also based on really old software and computer technology, and the newer stuff is much more modern and efficient with the current volumes.
Prior to the downturn, they were manufacturing upwards of 70 master stockrolls a day of Kodacolor…each and every day – enough to make nearly 3.4 million spools each day. The systems and equipment and staffing need to be entirely different than in days of yore.

It’s my understanding that the coating lines required huge throughput to work properly. Once Hollywood essentially stopped shooting film they couldn’t operate the lines profitably anymore. I’m also pretty sure that one of the European film companies is using (did use?) a machine that Agfa used for R&D coating. It was better suited to the quantities that were required.

 

[MattKing]

It’s my understanding that the coating lines required huge throughput to work properly. Once Hollywood essentially stopped shooting film they couldn’t operate the lines profitably anymore. I’m also pretty sure that one of the European film companies is using (did use?) a machine that Agfa used for R&D coating. It was better suited to the quantities that were required.

There used to be multiple coating lines, in more than one country.
They downsized - eventually to just a single, reduced capacity line in the current Building 38 in Rochester New York.
The switch in the theatres from projection prints to digital projection probably had more of an effect on film volumes than the reduction in use of motion picture camera films.
But the reductions in both home movies and still film volumes had a huge effect as well.
The coater in Building 38 is used as well for a lot of non-photographic products like flexible circuit boards and their growing business in (non-photographic) polyester film.

 

[mshchem]

Kodak is awesome. I know not everyone feels this way. Growing up with Kodachrome slides. My Dad and I would develop my 126 Verichrome in Microdol-X, and print it on Kodak Medalist paper developed in (non-brown) Dektol. Great times.

It will be interesting to see how Harman progresses with color film. I've bought a few rolls of their initial offerings. Not much of a fan of weird. We shall see.

 

[armadsen]

It's completely anecdotal, but my much younger brother (gen Z) saw the photos I took on the one roll of Harman Switch Azure that I bought and really liked them, and was excited to buy and shoot some himself. He's mostly a digital photographer.

I doubt I'll ever buy another roll, but I did enjoy the one roll I shot just to try it out.

 

[cmacd123]

But the reductions in both home movies and still film volumes had a huge effect as well.
The coater in Building 38 is used as well for a lot of non-photographic products like flexible circuit boards and their growing business in (non-photographic) polyester film.

if I recall building 38 had an atached twin called room something that was also demolished.

just one release of a 2 hour movie on 35mm film would use 10800 ft per theatre. say 200 screens in just Canada and the US, and you are talking
2,160,000 ft of release prints. All only used for a limited time. that volume would make all the still film used in a year into an also ran. now how many movies would be released and would eat 2 million feet in a year? digital projection ALONE changed the film business.