I just picked up an old Polaroid 500 holder today for free and am wondering if it can be used with the same films one would use today with the 545 holders. So...can it?

Thanks.

-- Dave Munson (orthoptera@juno.com), June 26, 2000

Answers

There may be an expert here who can offer more, but I'll tell what I found (I have one that came with a Super Graphic I bought). The 500 worked OK with Polaroid film. I had some small problems, but they may have been due to inexperience. When you pull the film envelope away from the film you have to be careful to get it just out of the way of the film surface, but not pull it all of the way out. There's a catch on the envelope that will hit a stop on the 545 to prevent you from screwing this up. I wasted a few Polaroids to figure out just how far to pull the envelope out. Once done it worked OK for exposure and focus. I also tried using Fuji quickloads and always had light leaks. I would say that in my experience that it's marginally funtional.

-- Roger Rouch (rrouch@msn.com), June 26, 2000.

It sort of works. You have to be careful not to pull the envelope up too much (I marked mine using a template) and there are occasional problems with the catch. Overall I had about a 75% success rate with mine -- given the cost of polaroid film, I sprung for a 545i to replace it, and will probably put the old one on Ebay one of these months.

-- John Lehman (al7jj@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

Dave, I've used mine (for B&W polaroids) for a couple of years without any problems. While it's true there's no catch that automatically stops you from pulling the film all the way out, it's not difficult to figure out where to stop it manually. On one side of the film, you'll see a circle, with a cross or x in it. If you pull the film out until the entire circle is just visible, that's the right distance. Then take your picture, slide the film back in the holder, remove the holder and process. The nice thing about the 500, other than its low cost, is the fact that it's all metal, and will take a lot of abuse.

-- Don Cassling (dcassling@jenner.com), June 27, 2000.

Hi Dave,

The Model 500 film holder was discontinued in 1969 and not supported by Polaroid, The currently manufactured film will not work in that holder as the latch will not engage the cap on the packet. I have one and use it under an enlarger to copy negs only.

Bill

-- Bill Jefferson (jefferw@polaroid.com), June 28, 2000.