Crazy or brilliant? Harman's new 'Switch Azure' film turns colors on their heads

Harman Switch Azure 35mm box shot — (Image credit: Harman)

Good news for analog photographers – Harman Technology has announced a new color film stock in 35mm and 120 formats.

Called Harman Switch Azure, this is an entirely new creative offering from Harman, joining the rest of its color film lineup that includes Harman Phoenix, Phoenix II and Harman Red. the company that also produces Ilford B&W film stocks, and it looks like something very different indeed.

The new stock is named 'Switch' because its colors do just that – switch. Take a look at the sample shots across this page and you'll see what I mean; barely anything is rendered as you'd expect.

Harman Switch Azure scan showing dramatic tones — You can expect images on Switch Azure to look almost nothing like real life. (Image credit: Sissi Lu)

Skies turn orange. Beach sands are rendered in a rather tasteful shade of azure. Skin tones come out a striking shade of blue. One thing's for sure: this is not a film for professional portraiture or granular accuracy, but I've tried out Harman Switch Azure already (review forthcoming), and I can promise you that it is a heck of a lot of fun.

The film is developed via the standard C41 process – so any decent lab near you will be able to handle it. One thing that's interesting about it is that according to Harman, Switch Azure can come out quite differently depending on how it is scanned.

Even using either a Noritsu or Fujifilm scanner can produce quite strikingly different results, as can scanning using a DSLR or mirrorless camera.

Scans of Harman Switch Azure showing significant tonal differences between Fujifilm and Noritsu scans — The top row were scanned using a Fuji Frontier; the bottom row are the same images rescanned using a Noritsu. (Image credit: Calvin Carey)

Harman Switch Azure is an ISO 125 film, and Harman says that you'll get best results shooting at this speed (in general, the company tends to discourage pushing and pulling of its color films). This means it's well suited to daylight shooting, with less utility once the light gets low.

Available in 35mm and 120 formats, Harman Switch Azure is priced at $12.99 / £12.50 for the 35mm version, and $10.99 / £10.99 for the larger-format 120 version. And its impressive variability, both in the shooting and the scanning, means you should be able to get wildly different results from multiple rolls. Having shot a couple of rolls already, I'm already keen to try it out again and see what happens.

Jon spent years at IPC Media writing features, news, reviews and other photography content for publications such as Amateur Photographer and What Digital Camera in both print and digital form. With his additional experience for outlets like Photomonitor, this makes Jon one of our go-to specialists when it comes to all aspects of photography, from cameras and action cameras to lenses and memory cards, flash diffusers and triggers, batteries and memory cards, selfie sticks and gimbals, and much more besides.

An NCTJ-qualified journalist, he has also contributed to Shortlist, The Skinny, ThreeWeeks Edinburgh, The Guardian, Trusted Reviews, CreativeBLOQ, and probably quite a few others I’ve forgotten.

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