SX 70 The Original Instant

I had bought the Polaroid Supercolor 670AF primarily to explore the realms of instant photography after reading about the Impossible Projects ambitions to restart the production of the film for these camera types since Polaroid had ceased production some time ago.

After buying the 670AF and then seeing how Lo Fi these units were, the search for something more substantial started. During the trawls of eBay I had noticed the SX 70 in various shapes and forms. There were the plastic ‘80’s versions that used the SX 70 film but I was after the more aesthetically pleasing folding SX 70 versions of the ‘70’s.

The earlier SX 70 models employed a 4-element 116mm f/8 glass lens, with focusing via geared wheel at top of lens/shutter housing. An electronic shutter with programmed automatic exposure with shutter speeds ranging from >10 sec to 1/175 with an aperture range of f/8- f/22. These sounded slightly more adventurous than the plastic bodied 670AF that I had got. So, the eBay hunting started….

After watching a few Sonar auto focus models, and watching the prices range considerably I spotted a “Buy It Now” listed Polaroid SX 70 Land Camera Alpha 1 Model 2. It was sold as seen with the seller noting “it has an old film inside” and that it was in half decent condition; I watched the item for a number of days. After further sales of SX 70 models it became apparent that most were in the same condition or had small faults. At that point I took the plunge and pushed the buy it now button…

The camera arrived, and as promised it did have the old film inside, it had been stuck in upside down by the way it looked, so it was prised out with some difficulty. 

Shot on a Polaroid SX 70 Land Camera Alpha 1 with the new First Flush PX100 Instant Film.