Struggling with the Polaroids!!

[DrPablo]

Hi all,

I've just begun playing with my new Calumet 45N. I'm pretty comfortable with the movements, focus, and the shutter mechanism. I picked up some Polaroid 79 to practice with, but I seem to have some innate inability to expose the Polaroid film. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Basically I'm loading the film into the holder (with the right side facing the lens) as directed; once it clicks I pull out the cardboard 'darkslide'; then I trigger the shutter; push the cardboard back in; flip the Polaroid lever down to 'P'; and pull out the sheet.

I then wait a minute or so and open it up -- and it's black. No idea what I'm doing wrong. And at $85 for a box of 20, I don't want to waste too many more.

[Donald Qualls]

If the print is black, the 'roid isn't getting exposed. There are two possibilities why. One is that the shutter isn't opening as it should -- easily checked (and if it opens for focusing, it ought to open for exposure, but under a dark cloth you can easily see the flash if you trigger the shutter). The other, more likely, is that the film isn't locking into the holder correctly and is pulling out with the envelope when you try to retract the "dark slide". If this happens, you'll be able to (gently) feel the chemical pod in the area that's marked "don't touch here", and if that's the case, you need to find out why the film isn't latching in.

Two likely possibilities are either a) a clip that tore off a previous sheet lodged in the latch in the holder, or b) the release lever (at the inserted end of the holder on my 500, I believe the 545 models are similar) is jammed "open". Sacrifice one sheet in daylight, off the camera, to check the latter if you don't find a jammed clip.

There are instructions around on the web on how to disassemble the 545 enough to get to the latch and clear it, BTW.

[Mark Sampson]

A tutorial on repairing the 545 holder can be found on the SK Grimes website.

[DrPablo]

Thanks for the thoughts. Looks like I got some to work today. I might not have been pushing the film in far enough.