Harman Switch Azure First Impressions
It’s always an exciting day when a new film stock is launched. I was lucky enough to receive a few rolls prior to the announcement and had a blast testing it out. I took the rolls to Julian Farm and Orchard and picked some beautiful Daffodils.
This film has a super unique emulsion, as it swaps the blue and red layers of the film creating out of this world results. It's perfect for photographers who enjoy experimental film stocks. Bright blue skies turn orange and vibrant yellow daffodils turn cyan. I always like to include a color checker test shot for reference; It’s quite interesting to see how each color is affected by the ‘switch’.
Either the film captured the excess pollen in the air, or it was subject to a weird manufacturing defect. I noticed this pattern on several images that I took while shooting in the rows of flowers. It’s worth noting that I only saw these spots on the 120 film, and nothing like it on the roll of 35mm I also shot at the same time.
We do already have another similar film on the market - Lomography Turquoise! While the secret sauce of what makes Turquoise possible is gatekept by Lomography, it’s been speculated that they also flip the color channels. Both films leave the greens relatively untouched.
For the sake of testing I chose to shoot both film stocks at 100 iso and metered for midtones. Lomo’s film is a variable speed best rated between 100-400 iso, while Harman’s is 125. Had I chosen to shoot the Lomo roll between 200-400 I think I would have gotten a much closer color result to the new Azure film.
I prefer Harman’s metal canister and as a bonus it’s also DX coded! As a lab tech my irrational ick is plastic canisters as they can be far more annoying when pulling the leader back out to process.
By now it should be no secret that my favorite film is Kodak Gold so you know I had to snap a few extra photos and show off the ‘true’ colors. The daffodils look lovely on my dinning room table in a vintage blue glass mason jar and kept fresh for several days. I always have so much fun at Julian Farm and Orchard and can’t wait to return for the next season. Summer is berry time and their farm will be exploding with blackberries, raspberries and strawberries!
What do you think, would you give this film a try? Now in stock at both George’s Camera locations. Get it while you can as this could be another limited edition release from Harman. Wonder what the next color switch will be.. perhaps we’ll get a Lomography Purple type film next!