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.

The openSX70 project is awesome !

Excerpt rom their FAQ:
What is openSX70?

It is many things at once, but simply put, openSX70 is an open source (hardware and software) project that aims to take the SX70 beyond what is possible now in a cheap and non destructive way.
Its main project at the moment is to make an Arduino-based replacement PCB (ECM in Polaroid lingo, and corresponding Arduino code to gain manual camera control, allow for double exposures, Bluetooth control and much more. At the same time the project aims to be a hub of all things SX70 related, with documents concerning tips, repairs or hacks, like the electronic modification of your camera to accept 600-ISO film. There are other web pages about the SX70, but most seem to be abandoned. We would like to compile as many as possible resources.

A new home for my Polaroid SX-70 FAQ


My workplace has a new website where people can not have their private information anymore. So I had to move my SX-70- and other stuff.
I had started to write this FAQ as a way to learn HTML when the Web was young and I was the admin of our departments web server.

Much of the content is outdated and I'll go through it and remove some obsolete links etc. in the next couple of weeks.
If you have anything I should add here please let me know.>

Click here to go to my new Flash adapter website: http://www.sx2pc.com

SX-70 manuals

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

Polaroid Originals - Film for the SX-70 !


A group of people around the austrian Polaroid enthusiast Florian Kaps has leased a section of the Enschede Polaroid Plant and is producing a new integral 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 opacifier in the developer paste is not efficient so the image has to be protected from light for a few minutes after ejection.

Impossible Monochrome Film (obsolete)

This film was an early stage product of IMPOSSIBLE which has evolved into POLAROID ORIGINALS:
This 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
THe film was rebranded from Impossible to Polaroid Originals.
Quality of the photos has improved steadily and is now at an acceptable level.
Kissing Plane

2009: End of Polaroid film production

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.

2006: End of SX-70 film production.


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.

How to repair a broken film door latch ?

look here

Before there was impossible film there was SX-70 Blend film

My review is here:
https://www.chemie1.unibas.ch/~holder/blend/

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.


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 here.

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.

The old SX-70 made until 2006 film had the unique property of its emulsion staying soft for a while after development.
Many artists use this for a technique called Polaroid manipulation.
Michael Going is an artist who has brought this technique to perfection.

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 their respective owners, who are changingfrom time to time.
Other brand names are the property of other companies or persons.