Help with 10x8 Polaroid.

[Richard Sanders]

I have been fortunate enough to have be given a couple of boxes of Polaroid 879, so I excitedly approached the equipment loans technician at my university to borrow a holder and processor.
Unfortunately the very knowledgable technician admitted that to his knowledge nobody had ever taken it out before and that he was unable to instruct me in its use.
I managed to find the pdf manual for the processor unit on the Polaroid website but I have been unable to find a manual for the holder. I think it is a 81-05 as it is not the one shown in the online pdf, and hinges opens in landscape not portrait. Also there is no loading tray but I read somewhere that this holder does not need it? How does one load the holder with negative and the seperate positive sheet successfully into the processor?
Many thanks for your help.
Richard

Edit:
I should add I searched the forum and celebrated too early when I came across a thread in which Gustavo Castilla http://gcastilla.com/ said he had received the manual form Polaroid and uploaded it but the link on his site is dead.

[RichSBV]

If you can't find the mauals to either the processor or holder, let me know and I can e-mail them to you...

[Bill_1856]

Call or email direct to Polaroid. One of their best attributes is an excellent users help program.

[David A. Goldfarb]

It's probably easiest to get a copy of the manual from Polaroid, which has a sequence of something like 39 pictures explaining how to do it. It's not that hard, if you can get someone to show you, or once you've done it a couple of times, but it's kind of hard to explain clearly, and at $14 a sheet these days you probably don't want to fumble around with it.

[Richard Sanders]

Many thanks for the replies.

RichSBV: I have sent you a PM with my email. Thank you for your offer.

Bill and David: I will try to contact Polaroid, my problem is that I unfortunately have to return the equipment before the end of the term (about ten days time) and then I will not be able to use it until October when the new year starts. Perhaps this is better than wasting film in error though.

I should maybe clear up any confusion caused by my first post, I believe from the manual for the processor and 81-06 holder from the Polaroid website I know how to load the negative into the holder, leave the three arrows on the envelope hanging out of the bottom, close the holder and pull the envelope out of the holder by the arrows.
Then go through the exposure routine.
Assuming this is correct it is just the loading of the positive sheet into the processor. I know how the holder itself fits into the processor but not how the positive sheets fits into this process.
In other discussions it has been said that with the 81-05 holder the loading tray is not needed and that the positive sheet fits into the holder? If so how?

[David A. Goldfarb]

Yes, with the 81-05 holder, you don't need a loading tray.

Be sure when you load the negative sheet (darkslide up) that the orange tab on the holder is threaded through the flap on the envelope. You pull the envelope as you've figured out and make the exposure.

Now put the filmholder on a table darkslide down with the darkslide handle toward you. Slide the positive sheet with the pod facing up and toward you into the holder in the slot just below the blue darkslide handles. The black tab from the negative sheet will thread through the white paper strip.

Insert the holder into the processor darkslide down, paper tab first. The white button will actuate the rollers and pull the packet through the processor (it takes about a second--thwoop!), and then time the development. My processor seems to have a non-functioning timer, so I just use a darkroom timer.

Peel the sheets apart from a corner near the tab end in one smooth motion or you'll get lines on the print.

You'll still want the instructions, which are more detailed than this, but that's the short version.

[Richard Sanders]

Thank you all for your help. I have a copy of the manual, very kindly emailed to me by RichSBV. I look forward to trying this out now!
Many thanks again.
Richard