Polaroid SX-70

by Karen Nakamura

Overview and Personal Comments

The Polaroid SX-70 is a folding SLR Polaroid pack film camera first introduced in 1972 by the Polaroid Corporation and produced in various iterations up until the early 1980s. The SX-70 accomplished several things: Using the text or images on this website without permission on an ebay auction or any other site is a violation of federal law.

• First motorized Polaroid camera
• First non-peel apart self-contained, self-developing film
• First foldable SLR (single-lens reflex) design

Interesting quirks

It's a folding SLR! The design is very modern and cool. I don't know why Polaroid ever discontinued it. In fact, I'd blame half of their recent descent into bankruptcy because of their idiotic marketing. They really had a timeless gem with the SX-70, they shouldn't have abandoned it as quickly as they did.If they had produced an SX-70 using the new 600 film, they could have most probably gone on producing it even into the mid-90s. None of the 1980/90 era Polaroids had quite as much personality as the folding SX-70s. Using the text or images on this website without permission on an ebay auction or any other site is a violation of federal law.

The SX-70 has been undergoing somewhat of a revival these days. Many people are snapping them up. There are some distinct groupings at play here:

1. Collectors - the SX-70 is the quintiessential 1970s modern camera. The value of them on the market has been increasing quite nicely.
2. Artists - the SX-70 film is softer than the current 600 film and allows for easier Polaroid manipulations
3. Users - the manually focused SX-70s are just nice to use, perhaps one of the nicest Polaroid cameras ever made

The Polaroid web site has a copy of the manual online, but because I'm worried that the company might not be around much longer, here's a mirrored copy of it in PDF format.

SX-70s are famous because the SX-70 film takes a long time to "fix" or set permanently. Normally you would think this would be a Bad Thing™ and indeed Polaroid released the "Time-Zero" quick-fixing film soon afterwards. But the beauty of the slow-fixing SX-70 film is that there is plenty of time (2-3 days if you judiciously cool/reheat it) to make Polaroid manipulations. Rather than spending a lot of hot air explaining what a Polaroid manipulation is, see these great Polaroid artist websites:

• Michael Going Gallery
• Alicia Sparaco Polaroid Photography

I think Polaroid type film will be around for a little while more. Fuji has been making it for Polaroid for some time now, so even if Polaroid goes belly-up, we should be able to get our film through Fuji. I've been noticing however, that most of the SX-70 film I've been seeing is the newer "Time-Zero" film which isn't as good for Polaroid manipulations. If you know of a source of the slow-set SX-70 film, please let me know. Using the text or images on this website without permission on an ebay auction or any other site is a violation of federal law.

[Apparently there was a late-production model that took contemporary Polaroid 600 film and was largely built of plastic. It's fairly rare, I haven't seen one personally. The person who sent this info said he saw it for $200 at a camera store.]

Example 1: Brown and silver Polaroid SX-70 with coach-quality leather genuined Polaroid carrying case in full working condition. With bulb flash attachment. Camera is in nearly pristine condition with excellent leather condition. Chrome has no visible scratches. Camera opens and closes smoothly. Rollers are clean with no traces of developing residue.

Example #2: Rare Black and Silver SX-70 with leather carrying case Black and silver Polaroid SX-70 with coach-quality leather genuined Polaroid carrying case in full working condition. With bulb flash attachment new in box. Camera is in nearly pristine condition with excellent leather condition. Chrome has no visible scratches. Camera opens and closes smoothly. Rollers are clean with no traces of developing residue. Camera fully tested and working.

Technical Details

About Polaroid

The Polaroid Corporation will be remembered in history as a company with the best products and the worst marketing ever.

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