New film from Harman?

[trendland]

Also the question arises when it becomes economical to make different emulsions/coatings.

That is indeed the issue AgX!

Ilford is able to generate high profits with its business again. But we should not be with much
illusions. It is not said that this nice situation to Ilford is forever!
It can change again!
And at last "high profits" is relative. Relative in concern to the "smaler" todays business model of Ilford.
The costs oft different coatings of films from the same "class" are not smaler today. It is the opposite of it! (caused from smaler scales).
Well and from this background we may regard Ilfords low speed films again :

Delta 100 , PanF, Fp4, Kentmere100, Ilfordpan100!

The ISO 400 class films are nearly from same diversification. You just have to "change" Delta,Hp5!

That makes quite clear that it is highly illusional to expect : Each film is different (a film of its own).

On the other hand you will not hear from Ilford (other manufacturers have same procedure)
a statement wich contains : Kentmere100, Ilfordpan100 is the same film!

Because customers would ask : "And why is it different priced"? (in different markets/regions) and
they would ask : "Why does Ilford give different names to same films?"

The answer is simple : Because from its origin (long ago in the past/in much higher scales)
such films were different of course - but today it is uneconomical (in such small scales from todays market demand).
What's left is the different package and the different name! From same reason you may find after a couple oft quarters all kind of different ISO 100/400 films in same package of APX films again and
again.
Possible you will get next Foma100 in APX100 canisters (if that would not be the case today)

with regards

PS : BTW - what is inside APX100 at this moment (I am not up to date)?

 

[MattKing]

With Hartman and its multiple brands and contracted coatings, I wonder how different a film has to be to be a different film.

I doubt there is an absolute definition.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Harman makes as much from its contract coating business - both photographic and non-photographic - as it does from its Ilford and Kentmere manufacturing.
And as for how different the film's need to be, I can't help but recall a recent post from Photo Engineer that at one time Kodak's 100 speed Ektachrome was actually their 200 speed Ektachrome with added neutral density component to decrease speed and increase sharpness.
In other words, there are many, many ways to make significant changes in the performance of a film emulsion.