When I get a day off in Tokyo it means a few things: hunting for vintage F-mount lenses for my beloved Nikon F3, and hitting up a few of my favorite photo spots like Golden Gai and the Tsukiji outer markets. On this trip I found a winner—a Nikkor 85mm f/1.4. Something I would never find in-person in the mid-Atlantic of the United States in person.
On this trip I tested out Harmon’s new Phoenix film. Harmon, the parent company of Ilford, is known for making black and white films, papers, and chemistry, and this film is their first real attempt at doing a color film stock—unless you count Ilfocolor (which I do not).
Harmon does not hide the fact that this is an experimental film, and it shows. Lots of grain, desaturated colors, and lots of halation, as can be seen in the exaggerated light on the bicycle in the image below.
I watched an excellent YouTube by Kyle McDougall where he tested the film and found it behaved better when shot at 100 ISO instead of the box speed of 200 ISO, so I gave that a shot.
I agree with his assessment that it is a challenging film to work with, and unless I was hired by somebody really willing to be experimental, I wouldn’t use it professionally, but I do see it as having a place in my camera bag for travel and personal work. I dig the quirkiness.
