Fully overhauling a Polaroid SX-70 - Ground-up restoration and repair ASMR

My name is Jake - and I have been repairing Polaroid cameras for clients professionally as The Instant Camera Guy for over a decade. Need a Polaroid repaired? Feel free to contact me! Links below.

In the second episode of The Instant Camera Guy, we dive deep into one of the most common types of cameras I refurbish - the classic Polaroid SX-70 Model 1.

Like what I do? Feel free to buy me a beer (or two!):
https://ko-fi.com/theinstantcameraguy

Getting artifacts in the video? For best quality, manually select 1080p quality, as depending on your bandwidth, YouTube may default to 720p - and YouTube's 720p compression looks like garbage

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Released in 1972, the original SX-70 was unlike any camera that had ever come before it (and I'd argue nothing has come close to it since!).

A folding SLR capable of taking 3x3" square photos in instantly developing integral film, the SX-70 was truly revolutionary.

Polaroid still make film for this camera to this very day! Often the new film is criticized for producing washed-out - overexposed photos, but this really isn't true. The reason MOST people are getting poor quality photos generally has less to do with modern film - and more to do with the fact that people are using their cameras completely un-refurbished!

A combination of design flaws from the factory plus 40-50 years of wear and tear means that for the best possible results, these cameras must be fully overhauled and repaired if they are to work properly. It is not simply enough to slap a new skin on these cameras and call it a day.

I'd consider the work listed in this video to be the bare minimum required before calling an SX-70 "restored". Don't settle for less.

In this video I dismantle the camera down to its chassis and rebuild it from the ground up, tackling many other repairs along the way, including:
- fixing the front door switch
- removing the brittle driveshaft coupler
- cleaning the electric eye
- removing the anti-static layer from the shutter blades
- trimming the internal rubber baffle to the correct shape
- refurbishing the old worn out motor
- modifying the camera to take 600 format film
- de-skinning the camera
- replacing broken rollers from the front door
and much more!

All film testing, re-skinning and calibration was done off camera for the sake of not boring you to death.

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Got a Polaroid that needs some love? Hit me up!

  / instantcameraguy  

  / theinstantcameraguy  

https://www.theinstantcameraguy.com