Harman Photo, the outfit behind the venerable Ilford brand, is not done tinkering with color. After the surprise arrival of Phoenix 200 back in 2023 and its follow-up Phoenix II last year, the company has now added a third member to the family — and this one changes the numbers on the box.
Say hello to Phoenix 125, a fresh color negative stock that trades the previous ISO 200 rating for a slower ISO 125. That drop in speed is not a footnote; for anyone who has shot the earlier Phoenix films, it hints at a different personality entirely. Slower emulsions tend to favor bright daylight and tripod-friendly setups over grab-and-go street work, so photographers will need to plan their light accordingly.
What Harman is decidedly not doing is chasing clinical perfection. Phoenix 125 keeps the line’s signature character: high contrast and a strong, visible grain that gives the frames a gritty, unmistakably analog look. If you want polished, neutral color science, this was never the film for you. Phoenix has always been about texture, punch and a little unpredictability — the sort of results that make a shot look like it was pulled from a shoebox rather than a smartphone.
The practical details are welcoming to anyone already running a home darkroom or dropping rolls at the local lab. Phoenix 125 uses standard C-41 processing, the same chemistry that handles the vast majority of color negative film, so there are no exotic development requirements to worry about. Better still, Harman is offering it in both 35mm and 120 formats, meaning it will slot neatly into everything from a compact rangefinder to a medium-format workhorse.
That dual-format availability is a meaningful signal. Launching a new color emulsion in 120 is expensive and technically demanding, and it suggests Harman sees genuine appetite among the medium-format crowd — the same enthusiasts who have kept film alive through its lean years.
The film was announced on August 12, 2026, and is expected to reach film retailers shortly. Harman has not published pricing for Phoenix 125 at this stage, so the cost per roll remains to be seen.
What is clear is the ambition behind the name. Building a color film from scratch is one of the hardest feats in photographic manufacturing — a corner of the industry most companies abandoned years ago. That Harman keeps iterating, now with a third distinct release and a new speed rating, says a great deal about its commitment to the format. Phoenix 125 may not be the film for every occasion, but as a statement of intent, it burns brightly.
