Redscale Harman Phoenix 200

For this blog post I have converted a roll of Harman Phoenix 200 to redscale. Harman technology sell their own version of this as Harman Red 125. Given that this film is officially available as a redscale film, the only other one on the market is Lomography Redscale XR, I was excited to se what this emulsion could do in the redscale space.

Harman Phoenix is supplied in a red box and isn't a general colour film in the same vein as Kodak Gold, for example. Harman have described Phoenix as the initial steps on their colour journey and Harman are inviting photographers to get involved in that journey. Phoenix is a limited run film.

Harman own the Ilford brand and manufacture some really excellent black and white emulsions in HP5 Plus and FP4 Plus.  They are not known for colour film.  To create a colour film from scratch is a costly business and without the might of a corporation like Kodak behind them, then the research and development of a new emulsion might prove too expensive to even try.  Harman came up with a strategy that they have been completely upfront about.

1. Create a colour film, that may not be perfect but the sale of which will fund the next stage of R&D.
2. Invite photographers to use the imperfect film and provide feedback
3. Use the feedback to improve the chemistry and go to step 1

Harman have since created Phoenix II, which is a refinement of Phoenix  but still not perfect as a general colour film. But photographers are being involved in the development and really enjoying the experience.

Given that Phoenix was a limited run, it has started to run out, but Phoenix II is now available.  Phoenix is also staring to expire at retailers and so there are deals to be had on expired rolls of this emulsion.

My roll of Phoenix was gifted to me by my good friend Dave Whenham. Dave has an excellent blog here --> Dave Whenham Photography.

Dave also, very kindly processed the film for me too. So thank you Dave for your help.  Thats why I see this roll of Redscale as more of a collaboration.

The results from Phoenix redscale are excellent and so I will definitely repeat the experiment.  By the way, I also have a roll of Phoenix II that I may convert to redscale.

The Festival of Wood - Westonbirt Arboretum - 2003

The Westonbirt Festival of Wood was held during the 2000s until 2011, when it changed into the Festival of the Tree. I attended in 2003 and took the family Canon Sure Shot TeleMax camera loaded with a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus.

Westonbirt Arboretum

I thought that the negatives had been lost to time as house moves took place over the years that followed.  

However recently I opened a box that had been sealed when I moved house last year and I found some negatives all filed in sleeves but not in a file.  Some negatives from my trip to Egypt and some from Tunisia.  In the middle of the negatives and filed between a set of Egypt negatives and a set of Tunisia negatives, were the set of black and white negatives from the Festival of Wood. Half of them in the Sharm El Sheikh negative file sheet and half in the Hammamet sheet. quite why I did this is a mystery now.

Sharm El Sheikh

Hammamet, Tunisia

These are significant because they are a document of me getting into black and white photography and using the family compact camera. I'd forgotten about the day out and that I'd bought a roll of HP5 Plus from the local camera shop.  The negatives have a numbered sticker at one end and so I must have got the camera shop to process the film. So these are really first steps for me. I've rescanned the negatives and cropped some of them, the pictures aren't half bad, considering they were taken on a compact camera.

An Afternoon Out with a Compact Camera

Recently I wrote a blog about the joys of compact cameras.

In-Praise-of-Compact-Cameras

The compact camera is a great carry around camera and sometimes the thought of carting around a heavy bag full of lenses, camera bodies and all that jazz, it just a bit much.  My 35mm film compact camera of choice at the moment is a Lomo LC-A.  It's definitely not perfect but it produces images that are not dreadful.  This is a very low bar, I know.  

The internet influencers would have you believe that a Yashica T4, Olympus Mju II, Contax T2 or Ricoh GR1S are the best compact cameras for 35mm film and so they may be, but now that the cat is out of the bag the prices match the hype that the influencers create. And that serves no one well, least of all those of us who are on a budget.

The LC-A isn't hyped by anyone, apart from the Lomography people - because they sell them, but that doesn't mean it's no good. Mine is from the early 1980s and is a genuine Soviet built one. You can pick them up for a decent price if you exercise some patience and avoid instant gratification syndrome.  I used the camera for a walk around one of Somersets' prettiest towns Frome a couple of days ago.  Here are the photographs.

2020 - Pandemic Photography

It seems like it never really happened now. 2020, the year that Boris Johnson asked everyone in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to stay at home in order to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. During the period where we all stayed at home, I found myself getting a bit bored. I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

Anyhow, I had some adapters that would allow 35mm film to be shot in a medium format camera. Sprocket hole photography.  There was an article that I found where you had to create a leader for your 35mm film from a scrap length of 120 backing paper.  Then you wouldn't loose any frames when the film was loaded.

Like so. This allows the takeup spool to be standard 120. Once the film is exposed you have to unload in a dark bag and wind the film back into the 35mm canister.

I loaded a roll of Fomapan 100 into a 6x7 medium format camera and during my time outside, shot these while observing social distancing (remember that?).

I'd forgotten all about these negatives until I came across them in an envelope recently.

The first frame thanks the NHS. Funny how we all did that when we thought we were going to die isn't it? (Bit of politics as Ben Elton might have said).

    

    

Sedgemoor Vintage Show 2026

Having moved to Somerset about a year ago, I decided to attend the the Sedgemoor Vintage Show, last weekend. The weather was a cool 32 Celsius and the barometer said it was due to be dry (no kidding?).  I went last year and really enjoyed the show. 

Apologies for the state of this but it was a well used resource.

I decided to take the Polaroid Flip camera, on loan from Dave Whenham. I took two packs of Polaroid iType Monochrome film and one of iType colour. The polaroid camera allows an easy photography style at these events while bringing its own retro vibe.

They have vintage cars, motorcycles, tractors and farm machinery, lorries and finally the stars of the show various steam powered road engines and rollers.

Nicely restored steam road roller

A lovely display of stationary agricultural engines, pumping water  or sawing wood was available to view.

The programme was a really useful tool, giving the history of individual vehicles, who they were supplied to (Coventry Council in one case) from new, who owns them and who restored them.  Some vehicles have had several restorations due to age.

There was a period correct tea marquee where you could have a cuppa and a slice of homemade cake.

The beer tent was a busy area and a nice selection of beer and cider was on offer.

Parking was free and entrance was a tenner. You got a programme free and a wrist band. Once you've paid for entrance you could go on the second day for free.

My favorite tractor the Field Marshall

An excellent afternoon was spent here.

Racing Cars

Now and again, I enjoy going to motorsport events. I'll take a camera with me and see if I can get close to the cars.  I enjoy the design and engineering work that has gone into the cars and I try to capture some of the design choices with my photography. These photographs were taken on 35mm film. Fomapan 100, if memory serves.

In Praise of Compact cameras

There are times when you want a camera that is a serious tool to take properly exposed, beautiful negative frames. However all of the technical activity to get a properly exposed, nicely developed negative makes the whole process really slow. If you are having a trip with a friend to London, for example, as I did recently,  you cannot make your friend ( a non photographer) slow down and stop, while messing around with meters, f stops, apertures and shutter speeds, not to mention intentional composition. No, you want to point and shoot and crack on with enjoying the company of a friend.

Bit shonky due to an expired roll of film that was (accidentally) exposed both sides.

Luckily the trajectory of camera and photographic refinement made much of the technical work automatic, allowing even non photographers to take some nice photographs. Non photographers don't buy SLRs or Medium Format cameras, they buy a little automatic compact camera.  In the early 1980s there were loads on the market and the improvements in automation carried on until the 1990s.

Japan produced some lovely compacts such as the Olympus trip or the Nikon L35AF. 

Here is a trip down memory lane.  In 1991 I bought a Canon Telemax Sure Shot 35mm film camera as a tool for making family memories. The camera we (read my wife) already had was appalling. While I can immerse myself in technical detail and the finer points of photography, my wife wasn't interested. She wanted to make snaps of the kids, our days out and our holidays. We'd send our film off to Truprint for processing and get back negatives, 6x4 prints and a free Truprint film.  The Canon was perfect. An automatic camera with film auto wind, really sharp lens and perfect metering. The Telemax also had a two position zoom, 38mm or  70mm.  The DX encoded films allowed the cameras internal brain to configure the ISO of the film in the camera and use that to calculate the exposure and meter the subject. Finally the camera used a near infrared beam to assist with the focusing of the lens.

It was a great camera and served us well. Interestingly the resulting photographs and negatives are still in the photo albums.

The files from the digital cameras that replaced the Sure Shot in the early 2000s have all been lost. Not one of them still exists, even though they were backed up. The backups I still have but the format cannot be read. (why do I hang on to them?).

It is a matter of regret that the camera was not looked after and was consigned to a drawer. Even after I returned to film photography, I ignored the camera. And then it got lost in a house move.

Looking online today nice examples fetch £100 (but I'm digressing. again!).

The point being that a decent compact film camera will serve the user well and allow nice photographs to be taken without slowing down any social interactions/walks/trips/holidays etc.

It was with this in mind that I took my Lomo LC-A to London.

I won't repeat the information that you can look up on the internet.

Here is a link to save you using Google,

Lomo_LC-A

The LC-A is a compact camera that produces decent results. Not top flight, portfolio ready photographs, but decent pictures. It's automatic and is very quick to use.

The LC-A is becoming a favorite as a walk around camera. I took this with my LC-A at a location local to my home in Somerset.

I'd recommend an LC-A to anyone looking for a dependable, compact automatic camera.  The controls fall easy to hand, it's zone focused, which I'm happy with, and the meter is really accurate. It would make a nice travel camera.