Polaroid Spectra Film Eject Question

[kb3lms]

A few months ago I picked up a Polaroid Spectra camera for a few dollars. It had the last pack of (dried out) Polaroid film in it which had enough power to operate the camera and it seemed to work fine.

So, I purchased some Impossible Spectra film around Christmas and just today finally got it loaded in the Spectra. The film was stored in the fridge until a week ago. The film shows a manufacture date of 09/16.

When I loaded the film and the camera powered up, the top cardboard sheet got stuck in the rollers on the eject. It seemed like the camera barely had enough power to eject it. In the darkroom, I open the front and pulled the sheet out then tried a picture. The camera seemed to operate fine, focus appeared to work, the flash worked but the film got stuck in the rollers on eject just like the sheet did.

I fooled around with it in the dark to try and get the thing to work, but needless to say, all the pictures eventually got wasted. I reloaded the cartridge with the wasted pictures and tried again following some online guides to clean the camera and such. Eventually, I got it to go by removing the thin plastic light blocking strip at the front of the cartridge but when the film is ejected the camera barely seems to have enough "oomph" to eject the film. The output rollers are now clean and they are moving freely.

I've never used one of these Spectra cameras before, but I have other Polaroid 600 cameras and with Impossible film they appear to work fine. The film eject is snappy like it should be. But the Spectra really struggles to eject the film.

Is this a common thing? I wouldn't think so. Is there anything at the camera I should look at? Or is the film pack defective? I checked the battery voltage and it is just a hair over 6 volts, but that doesn't mean there is enough current available to run the motor.

I plan to contact Impossible and see if i can get a replacement or refund. The film is too expensive to just push the button and hope something happens!

Thanks,
Jason

 

[bvy]

Can you pull the pictures through the rollers freely? Or is there a lot of resistance? I tend to think it's the camera. I've had two or three Spectra's now, all of which I've only used with IP film. Sometimes the film has trouble "catching," but once in the rollers, it moves the film with no problem.

 

[sepiareverb]

Do the rollers move freely? They can get very gummed up.

 

[AgX]

The force of the roller section is only caused by the friction at the roller axles and on the film. This again is caused by the force of the springs that make part of that section.
The springs are stamped out metal pieces that cannot get stiffer by themselves. Remain the rollers. I cannot see how their bearing could be gummed up.

Seen the built of the motor/gear section at other models I do not see a plausible cause for reduced torque. Maybe others can make me wiser on this part.

 

[kb3lms]

Well, I eventually got the second pack working by removing the little plastic film strip at the front of the cartridge where the picture is pushed out. This way, the motor develops just enough torque to push the picture into the rollers and out.

On the first cartridge, I noticed the battery had a production date of 9/22/15, so it sat around for a year before being put into a cartridge. Really, I think the battery Impossible is using is weak and just doesn't deliver enough current for the motor to develop sufficient torque.

The cartridge does have the newer version of the color film which looks like an improvement.

 

[AgX]

The original Polaroid batteries (large and small versions) still worked when the film was already gone.
Common alkaline batteries have a warranted shelf live of 8 years or so.

 

[removed account4]

have you tried over the counter film they sell at walmart and target ? same problem?
i remember googling "polaroid spectra film" and they seem to sell it
( unless it was a ghost listing from xmas past )

 

[Doug Richardson]

I have shot my Image Spectra camera with great success. I like the wider format of the images. I have also come across several packs of their film (in multiple formats) that performed as described above. Personally I believe it to be the batteries. Note: this is without extensive trouble shooting. I slide the dark slide back in, marked it as such and is off to the side for now. Trolling Youtube videos uncovered a method of using a known good battery pack wired/soldered into the questionable pack. If you have the tinkering skills, this might be an option. Even easier, since you have a darkroom or a changing bag, you can take the film from the questionable pack and put them into the known good one.
Good luck.
-Doug

 

[AgX]

I got the opposite impression, I even took out Polaroid battery packs from used cassettes to use them on some tinkering projects.
I can't speak though of the batteries used by Impossible.