Polaroid 104 Camera User Guide

To open the front of the camera, you squeeze the centre of the top of the cover and pull towards you, then you need to push up the upward pointing arrow on the right hand side, this frees the bellows which you can now pull towards yourself to open until you hear a click.

To load the film, turn the camera around and on the bottom you will see a little switch, flick that and the door will open, this allows you to install the film pack, make sure that you have the side of the pack of film with the writing on it, facing the inside of the camera, with the paper tabs pointing to the right hand side of the camera. Slip the film pack into the camera and snap it in, you will hear a click. Make sure that all the tabs are sticking out of the side of the camera. Close the door, you will hear two clicks as the door is properly closed.

Now gently wiggle the black paper tab out, try not to rip it, if you do rip it, you can open the back of the camera and pull out a small amount of the black paper, so that you have a new black tab. Now you will see that there is one white paper tab that is sticking out of the side of the camera, it has a number 1 written on it.

To take a picture, firstly set the mode from colour to black and white by flipping the switch just above the lens, you can also use exposure compensation by moving the white dot on the lens to any location on the scale underneath the lens, it goes from darker to lighter. When you look through the viewfinder you will see on the left hand side a series of numbers going vertically down the viewfinder from INF (infinite), 20, 10, 7, 5, 4, and 3 ½, to pick the option you need you slide the buttons marked one on the bellows, they move from side to side. You need to make sure that the subject you want to take a photo of fits in between the two horizontal lines in the viewfinder. Then you cock the shutter by pressing switch number 3 (it is marked) down. Now you press the red button on the top of the camera, marked 2. You have now taken a photo.

To remove and process the photo, you need to very gently wiggle the white tab, until it comes out of the camera, as it does so, you will see that a second black tab appears, gently and smoothly pull this black tab until the photo is out of the camera, now you need to wait for the photo to process. FP3000B is the black and white film for these cameras and it takes about 30 seconds to process, or 15 seconds if you are in a temperature above 28 degrees, you can now peel the photo of the backing paper from the corner of the photo. FP100C is the colour film for these cameras and it takes a bit longer to develop.

To close the camera, push the long bar that goes diagonally across the front of the camera, at the back of the bar, just beside the viewfinder, to the left hand side, you will see the bellows retract into the body of the camera. When it clicks, you know it is fully retracted. Then close the front of the camera again.

The films for these cameras have a high level of contrast. The 100 in FP100C means that it is 100 speed, so it is a slow film, it is an outdoor film really, or you can use it indoors with lots of flash. FP3000B the 3000 is the speed. It is flexible as you can shoot in any light, it is fast. The B stands for black and white and C stands for colour. Be careful when handling these packs, as you don’t want to squash the dye packs, as it will mess up the photos.

When you first peel apart the photo, the photo and the white border will be sticky, so try and keep the photo safe for a little while.

The Table below lets you know how long you need to leave FP3000B film to develop before you peel it open, depending on ambient temperatures.

Coliemore Harbour