A beginner's guide to the SX-70

Beginner's guide / frequently made mistakes

Get the respective operating-manual.
Correct exposure is essential for good pictures.
Colors deteriorate rapidly with over/underexposure.
A well adjusted SX-70 should automatically set the correct exposure in a low-contrast environment.
If you shoot something with shaded sections in a bright sunlight surrounding, you have to choose what you want to have correctly exposed.
Take a few shots with different settings (+/- 2 markers) to find out.
It is worth sacrificing a film or two for experiments in the beginning.
Keep all the bad pictures and write the circumstances/settings onto them. I have lots :-).
Never forget that the electric eye does not look through the lens, so dial some + when shooting a portrait of someone with a bright shirt and some - if the subject is dressed in black.
Note that different flashbars have different power.
I have to set my camera to -2 units when using General-Electric flashbars, whereas Sylvania give right exposure with no correction.
Do store Polaroid film in a cool place preferably in the fridge, but never freeze it.

Ecology

Do not litter the cardboard boxes as they are coated with polyethylene and aluminium and will not rot.
You can either return empty films to a place where they collect used batteries as a whole, or pry the flap in the front open and remove the spring and the battery.
Do not cut your fingers at the sharp edges of the sheet metal spring.
The plastic housing is a convenient container for storing, or to protect freshly exposed pictures from pressure.
Polaroid integral films contain a Lithium-battery, that usually has a lot of power left when the film is finished. You can convert two clothes-pins to contact-clips and power a radio or toys for hours, until the battery is empty.
Polarity:
If you look at the plain cardboard side, the two holes are up and the contact tabs downward, the tab on the left is the positive one.

Most common mistakes include:

finger on electric eye -> overexposed picture.
finger on flashbar -> flash-pictures too dark / burnt finger.
scrambled picture -> use a tripod when it becomes dark, (film speed=125 ASA f=8)
everybody who starts with the SX-70 uses only the lower half of the picture.
This is because you are looking downward, not straight as with most cameras.

Good luck with your SX-70!