This web site contains various information about the Polaroid SX-70 camera. This camera was very popular in the mid / late 1970s, especially in the USA.

Who repairs a broken SX-70 (or other Polaroid camera ?)

Vintage Instant in Amsterdam does !

New Polaroid SX-70 Flash Adapters!


It has been years since I stopped making those adapters.
I still get a lot of e-mails from people who would like to have one.
Since nobody else wants to make them I decided to start production again.
This is an improved circuit for both low- and high voltage strobes.
Click here to go to my new Flash adapter website: http://www.sx2pc.com

The Impossible Project - New film for the SX-70 !


A group of people around the austrian Polaroid enthusiast Florian Kaps has leased a section of the Enschede Plant and is producing a new iontegral film for the SX-70 and 600 cameras. Spectra / Image format should come soon.
Since the Enschede plant is merely an assembly / packaging facility he had to find a source of positive / negative film and batteries, all of which were produced at the dismantled Polaroid factories in the U.S.
The new film stock is made by Harman Technology / ILFORD
The new PX film comes as 100 and 600 ISO and the product is still very flawed. The opacifier in the developer paste is not efficient so the image has to be protected from light for a few minutes after ejection.
The film is very sensitive to changes in temperature and the developing process is uneven, yielding reddish stains.
However it is great to have something to feed to the SX-70 at all and hopefully they will improfe their films enough to be used in general photography
Kissing Plane

Polaroid discontinues all film.


Production of all Polaroid has stopped.
The last factory that produced 600 and Spectra/Image film stopped in June 2009.
The last Expiry date of Spetctra/600 is Oct.2009.

For me Polaroid is not just instant images.
It is some of the finest chemistry and physics ever incorporated in a consumer product.
It is the look and feel and smell. This will be gone for good.

BTW I don't believe that Fuji will produce compatible film.
No one will set up a new factory if it doesn't pay to keep an existing one going.
Rather Fuji will pull the plug of their films too.

Polaroid has discontinued SX-70 film in early 2006.


If you would like to continue using your SX-70 you have the following possibilities:
  • Buy SX-70 Blend film.
    SX-70 blend film is 600 film with a ND filter on top of the film cartridge to compensate for the 4x faster 600 film.
    You can reuse the filter foil from Blend film many times with 600 cartridges.
  • Put a 2 stop ND filter in front of the lens.
    This corrects for the faster film but darkens your viewfinder picture considerably.
  • Have your camera electronically modified to accept 600 film. James Jacobson modifies the electronic circuit of the SX-70 camera so that it exposes 600 film correctly.
    A modified camera takes full advantage of the faster film instead of wasting it in a filter.
  • Modify your camera by removing the ND filter in front of the electric eye.
    This does not work for all SX-70 cameras.

NEW! SX-70 Alpha manual in german, english, french, dutch, italian here

NEW! How to repair a broken film door latch ? look here

I had a close look at the new SX-70 Blend film.
 My review is here:
http://www.chemie.unibas.ch/~holder/blend/
In short it is a new type of 600 film with a ND filter on top of the film cartridge.
Colors are more like 600 than like Time-Zero film.
It cannot be emulsion manipulated any better than other 600 film.
SX-70 Blend is good news for people who would like to keep their SX-70 cameras going without having to mess with the exposure electronics or live with a dark viewfinder image.

The SX-70 is not a Leica, it is neither expensive nor rare.
 Current prices are around 100 $ for one guaranteed to work.
Many cameras now show signs of age, many have been sitting in hot attics or moldy cellars for decades, so any camera that is sold "as is" or "not tested" should be bought as defective.
The best thing that you can do with it is get a pack of film (what ever film you find for it) and take pictures with it.

You can pick one up cheaply at a garage-sale or flea-market and start to experiment with it.

NEW:

The easiest way to continue using the SX-70 with 600 film is a stick-on filter sold by Polaroid Japan.
Here is a review.

Stephan Wagner has converted the flash from a Polaroid 636 into an external flash for his SX-70 Sonar The flash is supplied from the battery inside the film pack. See the article in german and in english.

This article also explains what the four extra contacts at the rear of the Sonar AF cameras are good for.

How to make double Exposures with your SX-70 in the FAQ-Section.

Norman Hathaway designed a Logo for my SX-70 web site.

The cutaway picture of the SX-70 is now on the Disassembly page.

A detailed description how to modify the SX-70 for 600 film is now in the FAQ-section.

SX-70 film has the unique property of its emulsion staying soft for a while after development.
Many artists use this for a technique called Polaroid manipulation.
Michael Goingis an artist who has brought this technique to perfection.

Kathleen Carr is the author of Polaroid Manipulations: A Complete Visual Guide for Creating SX-70, Transfer, and Digital Prints.
Take a look at her website

The Xiao, a toy Polaroid camera made (and only sold) in Japan.
I've got one of these now.
This camera definitely has some cult potential ! (some new stuff added)

There is now an american sibling to the Xiao:
The I-Zone, which is available in the U.S. and Europe with normal and sticker-film.

> Shinsaku Hiura's SX-70 page in Kyoto, Japan


Copyright notice: Please note that I don't own the rights for all of the pictures on these pages.
I use some of them with the permission of their owners. Please ask me before you use any picture from this my site.
Polaroid and various other product names on my web pages are owned by Polaroid Corp.
Other brand names are the property of other companies or persons.
This page is not owned, sponsored or even approved by Polaroid.