It's funny to think that in all these years using 35mm film there were 2 things I never did: accidentally not exposing my roll then sending it to develop (getting a blank) and accidentally setting the ISO wrong on a non DX coded camera. These must be the 2nd and 3rd most common mistakes in the universe of film (the 1st is not using flash indoors or at night on a disposable camera). I'm not sure why I was lucky for so long but the film gods were done with me.
I was eager to test a new camera, and while I was playing around with it last night, going through all the shutter speeds, I set the ISO to 800, just because it's the middle of the road option. Then I proceeded to forget this, and in the morning I popped in an ISO 200 film. And shot the entire roll without noticing. In fact, I only realized it when it came out of development, and the negatives looked a little thin.
It was a test roll to check for light leaks, ok? Also, I can't trust morning me, I'm a night person! But here's the idiot who shot Harman Phoenix II ISO 200 at 800 and developed normally:
Underexposed selfie on 35mm Harman Phoenix II 200
Some more shots from this roll (full disclosure: I scanned them with -5 yellow and +1 cyan, then in post added contrast and saturation, then lowered the blacks and shadows to taste):
I can say I haven't enjoyed Harman Phoenix II all that much (see my more properly exposed samples below). I commend Harman for being one of the very few making new film in 2025, but I preferred the wacky first version of Phoenix. It wasn't trying to be normal, and I liked the freedom of that, while this is trying too hard while failing at it. Maybe the 120 version will convince me otherwise, so...
My saga to acquire my dream Pentax 67 continues.
