Polaroid has jokes...

[ChristopherCoy]

I completely forgot I had this camera, and just bought some film for it. Gotta love Polaroid's jokes. Especially at nearly $20 a pack for only 8 exposures.

 

[Chan Tran]

And you will have 8 overexposed shots. I believe the film you bought is ISO600 while the camera was for ISO80.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

And you will have 8 overexposed shots. I believe the film you bought is ISO600 while the camera was for ISO80.

The film is ISO160

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I shot a few colour packs of SX-70. My only criticism were its very anemic yellows. I am liking the B/W stuff, though. 30 loonies per pack up here.

 

[Peter Schrager]

complain about the price..or complain that it's not available anymore....which is it??
personally I love polaroid film and will continue to support them...

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

complain about the price..or complain that it's not available anymore....which is it??
personally I love polaroid film and will continue to support them...

I wasn't complaining about the price... but I did criticise its weak yellows. Are criticisms permitted?

 

[ChristopherCoy]

I wasn't complaining about the price...

Nor was I. If my complaint was price, I probably wouldn't have bought the three pack combo that I did. It was a tongue in cheek post based on the message of the black card.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Nor was I. If my complaint was price, I probably wouldn't have bought the three pack combo that I did. It was a tongue in cheek post based on the message of the black card.

Yes I know you weren't complaining. I've kept all the black cards as I thought it was kinda cute.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

Yes I know you weren't complaining. I've kept all the black cards as I thought it was kinda cute.

I dont remember them having little messages like that back when it was Impossibly Project.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I dont remember them having little messages like that back when it was Impossibly Project.

I didn't start using it until they bought the Polaroid name. What do you think of the quality of the film? I followed impossible when they started, and they had a lot of quality issues.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

I didn't start using it until they bought the Polaroid name. What do you think of the quality of the film? I followed impossible when they started, and they had a lot of quality issues.

Haven't shot them yet. I'm at work today and they were just delivered this morning. I got in back when it was Impossible. I had a metal VIP member card and all. The last time I shot any though was probably around 2014, maybe before. It'll be interesting to see how its come along.

 

[richyd]

I didn't start using it until they bought the Polaroid name. What do you think of the quality of the film? I followed impossible when they started, and they had a lot of quality issues.

B&W was always quite good and latest incarnation is even better, but I held off trying colour from my past experiences when it was Impossible but tried a pack a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised with the balance and fidelity so I'll be using it again. Did a little lockdown, spring flower project.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I last shot SX-70 when the Impossible Monochrome first came out. I quite liked it then. My SX-70, however, is in dire need of going through -- maybe I can manage to get it off to them for an overhaul and reskin sometime this year.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

B&W was always quite good and latest incarnation is even better, but I held off trying colour from my past experiences when it was Impossible but tried a pack a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised with the balance and fidelity so I'll be using it again. Did a little lockdown, spring flower project.

I'll have to pick up a box of colour SX-70 when this covid nonsense is over...Like I said, I shot a few boxes last summer, and all of them had very weak yellows. The yellows were "normal" in yours?

 

[Chan Tran]

Back in the late 70's when I had the SX-70 I think I paid about $10 for a pack. So the price isn't all that high now when you consider inflation.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Back in the late 70's when I had the SX-70 I think I paid about $10 for a pack. So the price isn't all that high now when you consider inflation.

Oh, I agree -- and compared to the cost of sending film out to be processed and printed, vs. taking a couple weeks to make the round trip, there's some value in being able to see your picture in a couple minutes.

I could still buy SX-70 Time Zero film when I got my SX-70 camera, and at that time (early 2000s?), I recall it being close to $20 a pack. Now it's $30. Not that big a jump. I could byy budget B&W film for $2.50 a roll back then; now it's close enough to $5. And Polaroid has always been expensive; my first couple Polaroid cameras use the double-roll film (a Swinger, little 2x3 B&W only with the 3000 speed and a big folder that made the 3x4 prints that developed inside the camera's back door and needed a coater), and it cost so much I only ever shot about two rolls in the big one (and by the time I could afford it better, the roll film -- Type 40? -- was gone).

 

[ChristopherCoy]

Well it doesn’t seem any better than it has been in the past. My first frame is barely recognizable as an image. But I’m not completely blaming the film. My camera hasn’t been used in at least three years if not five.

I’ll try another frame tomorrow and see how it turns out.

 

[ozphoto]

I shot a few colour packs of SX-70. My only criticism were its very anemic yellows. I am liking the B/W stuff, though. 30 loonies per pack up here.

I've just shot some B&W and not had much success, unlike the colour pack which gave me 7 really acceptable shots and 1 that was ok. The B&W has just been very overexposed, so I'll try the last 3 with adjustment and hopefully, that will solve the problem.

My only gripe with this new stuff - too many marks and the B&W pack ejected the cover before I closed the front; no such issue with the colour pack I used. In the old days, I could have returned those duds for a new pack, today though no such guarantee.

That being said, I don't mind the results, and it's nice to have another analog choice. While I won't be shooting it often, I'll definitely be shooting Polaroid again in the future.

 

[richyd]

I'll have to pick up a box of colour SX-70 when this covid nonsense is over...Like I said, I shot a few boxes last summer, and all of them had very weak yellows. The yellows were "normal" in yours?

Yellows came out fine. Poor digi snap not withstanding.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Yellows came out fine. Poor digi snap not withstanding.

View attachment 245385 View attachment 245386

Well that certainly is promising. Thanks!

 

[rulnacco]

Contributing to a dead thread (sorry!) but the mention of some folks above of keeping the black card leads me to make a recommendation:

Do save a couple of black cards and empty film cartridges. And keep your poorly exposed shots, too. Reason? You can use them to troubleshoot/clear problems with a balky camera. If you carefully slip a few of your reject shots and the black card correctly back into the film cartridge, you can insert it into your camera (so long as the battery keeps working--and they can go for a lot longer, it appears, than just the eight exposures in the pack) and the camera won't know it's not a new film pack. It'll act just like you put in a new one--including initially ejecting the card--and you won't have to waste unexposed sheets trying to figure it out.

I always keep a couple of dummy cartridges handy to deal with the small problems that crop up when using these older cameras.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Good thinking. Of course, the other thing you can do with the black cards is (in a darkroom or changing bag) remove a partial pack and slip the black card back in -- for instance, to change from plain to color frame, color to monochrome, etc. -- so as not to waste an exposure (or maybe two, I don't know if the top print will fully protect the next one from full strength daylight).

 

[ChristopherCoy]

I had issues with with my SX70, or the film, and hadn't shot another frame since. I've honestly been contemplating selling the thing since I have no interest in sending it off for another cleaning.

 

[gone]

Complaining is good. There wouldn't be a forum w/o it! Don't think of it as complaining, it's more about stating some of the downsides of things. I've avoided lots of pitfalls from reading posts that accurately gave someone's impressions on something, good, bad and indifferent.

I'd forgotten that anyone made film again for these wonderful cameras that became paper weights w/o it. Then about a month ago I saw a TV commercial of this yuppie woman snapping shots at a festive gathering w/ a camera like yours. After dissing it as just more marketing pizzazz I looked it up and sure enough, there's film now. It's a little on the pricey side for me to get involved in, but I used to love shooting Polaroids. Seeing the smile in people's eyes when you gave them the print right then and there was magical.

 

[Lee Rust]

The SX-70 is a unique reflex design that's well suited for close-ups and my early model works well enough to run a few packs of film through it every year. The Polaroid Originals color film has steadily improved since the old Impossible days and now it's not so bad if you don't mind fuzzy, low contrast prints with slightly off-kilter colors. Some subjects are well suited. The new film is faster than the original so I always set the camera to maximum 'dark' on the exposure wheel. Now I'll have to try some of the newest B&W film.

It always seems like a terrible waste to throw away the 6 volt battery, stainless steel spring and plastic cartridge after just 9 operation cycles without recycling and/or re-use. The batteries in particular have plenty of power remaining after the film is used up and it would be easy to hook a couple of them together with clip leads to run a small 12 volt device.