I haven't been out for a few weeks thanks to Covid, but after everyone in my household produced a negative test I was able to get out and about again. This coincided with a visit from my friend Keith Sharples who came to stay with us for a few days and I was ready for a photo walk on a sunny autumn afternoon. We decided to stay local, Keith hadn't been for a wander around Wigan Pier for several years, so we paid a visit to the Wigan Pier Quarter of town.
I loaded a roll of CHS 100ii into my Minolta X-700 and pushed it one stop to 200 iso. I know how good this film is at its native box speed, but how would it cope at 200? I wanted to find out. Keith was using his Rank Mamiya rangefinder that he recently had serviced by Pierro at PPP Cameras. This was the first chance Keith had to give it a proper test and we were quite looking forward to seeing how it performed.
We parked at Trencherfield Mill and got busy photographing the items of machinery on public display from the rich heritage the north of England has at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. The biggest being the fan that drove fesh air into a local colliery, thus greatly reducing the chances of miners suffocating as they toiled deep underground at the coalface. It also drove out the dreaded methane gas, known to all coal miners as "Firedamp".
Methane Gas accumulates in coal seams and if not dealt with can ignite and cause a huge explosion. Two notable incidents in the local coal fields that caused loss of life occurred because of methane gas explosions. The Pretoria Pit Disaster of 1910 took 344 lives in an explosion and more recently an explosion took ten lives at Goldborne Pit in 1979. Both are still commemorated by the local communities to this day.
We took full advantage of the sunshine by taking a few photos of Wigan Pier. Sadly the refurbishment has hit financial trouble and has come to a standstill until further investment can be raised. The outside of the buildings has been cleaned and they look great, but until more investment is found it's basically been mothballed.
On the other side of Trencherfield Mill is a Dry Dock that was in use when we visited. Keith once lived on a Canal Barge and appreciates the work that has to be done to maintain them. We had a look further up the canal where I got a couple of photos of Kennet, a barge that has been used both for industrial use and as an educational centre to teach schoolchildren about life on the canals. It is also on the National Historic Vessels Register here in the UK.
Our final shots were taken adjacent to the Lock Keepers Cottages that stand at the bottom of the Wigan Flight of 21 locks that climb from Wigan Pier to Top Lock at Aspull. During the summer months a steady stream of barges and leisure boats start or finish their traverse of the Wigan flight here aided by volunteers who man the locks. All too soon, or so it seemed, our films were done and we headed back to my home for a well deserved rest.
A couple of days later I gave some thought to how I would develop my film. I sent a message to James Lane at Zone Imaging for advice on how to calculate my developing time for ADOX CHS 100ii. James very graciously gave me the info I needed and that calculation gave me a ball park time of 13 minutes for the film shot at 200 iso and developed in James' excellent 510 Pyro, diluted to 1+100 at 20 celcius. After fixing my film using Fotospeed FX30, I soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom.
I was very pleased with my first look at this roll of ADOX CHS 100ii. Setting the film speed at 200 iso was an experiment and one that worked out quite well in the autumn sunshine. Scanning was done using my Nikon D700 with my film held in my Pixl-Latr and iluminated with my A5 led light pad. I processed the raw files with Affinity Photo 2.
Here's a few of my favourite photos from our walk around the Wigan Pier Quarter of town. It was good to get out again after having to quarantine with the dreaded lurgi. Keith said I had to replenish my silver halide levels and I took full advantage of it. The highlights were nicely exposed and the shadow details weren't lost in the contrast that a 100 iso film can give you. Overall that one stop push gave me decent results and I will probably do it again.
I like ADOX CHS 100ii, it's a great slow speed black and white film at a price we can all afford. I'm an Ilford guy and I love using FP4, but if that option was unavailable to me I wouldn't hesitate to choose ADOX CHS 100ii. It's well worth the money and I would quite happily use it as my everyday film until my dying day. As always I have placed these photos and more in an album on my Flickr account that you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
ADOX CHS 100ii - Minolta X-700
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