Polaroid 545 film holder jamming up....

[Sitron]

I have both an older metal 545 film holder, and a newer 545i plastic holder, and they jam up more than occasionally during a shoot. What happens is the metal band along the bottom edge of the film catches inside while pulling the film out. I have to stop shooting and open the whole thing up to clean the developer off the rollers and free the film. I''m about to give up shooting this film, even though I love the instant negs. and the rough edges. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to keep this from happening? I've had two shoots recently where I had to stop shooting film because both holders had film jammed in them.

[Tom Westbrook]

I've had that problem with recent Type 55. I now "prepossess" the film by flattening the flared part of the metal clip a bit by placing it face-down on a hard surface and covering only the clip with the flat side of a metal ruler and pressing so the flare sticks out a bit less, but not totally flattened. Seems to work for me. I think the clip just sticks out a bit too much and snags on the holder when you try to remove the film.

[Bosaiya]

I had this happen on two holders during one of the very few shoots I've done involving people. Talk about frustrating.

Turns out it was the box of film. I went through most of it tearing the film out of the holders and cursing before trying a new box. Every piece out of that new box (and boxes since) worked perfectly. Polaroid sent me a coupon for a new box.