After my post lamenting the discontinuted Polaroid Time-Zero film, Susanna pointed me to a page of Polaroid’s website that gives suggestions about how to mod your SX-70 camera so it can accept 600 film. The modifications are pretty simple, but for all you visual people, I thought it might be helpful to see what they are talking about. Here is how to mod your Polaroid SX-70 to accept regular 600 Polaroid film:

Polaroid 600 film actually fits in an SX-70 camera pretty easily. The problem with using 600 film in the SX-70 is that it is four times more sensitive than SX-70 film. Without modification, all your photos taken with 600 film would be overexposed. To correct this problem, we are going to adjust the camera by two stops. We will use a one stop neutral density filter to cover the lens, and we will remove the neutral density filter that covers the photocell. If you are wondering why we are adjusting by two stops when the film is four times faster, here is a quick math lesson. One stop is equivalent to doubling (or halving depending on which direction you are going) the amount of light. So, 2×2=4. Alright, lets get started.

Supplies: You are going to need a few supplies in order to make this modification to your SX-70 camera. You will need a clear cd case, an x-acto knife and a one stop neutral density filter. Depending on the neutral density filter you find, you may also need some glue to affix the lens to the camera.

Step 1 The SX-70 camera has a photocell on the front of the camera to the right of the lens. This is the camera’s “eye” which it uses to sense how much light it is looking at. It is looking through a neutral density filter. We are going to remove that filter so that the camera thinks that what it is looking at is two times brighter than what it actually is. This will save us one stop. Here’s what you do:

Remove the filter retaining ring (the little chrome ring which surrounds the photocell) by gently pushing the tip of a small knife under the edge and popping out the ring. Remove the small round neutral density filter. While you have the filter out of the way, it is interesting to see how the light/dark adjustment works by covering and uncovering the light sensor.

Next you want to cut a piece of clear plastic to go in place of the neutral density filter. This is where the clear cd case comes into play. This is a little harder than you would think. If you try cutting the plastic with scissors, it will crack and splinter.

In order to get a nice circular piece of the plastic you have to cut it out with a sharp x-acto knife. I cut out a piece just slightly larger than the old filter and then sanded it down to a more round shape.

Once you have your piece of clear plastic, you can put it into the ring and try to place it back on the camera. You will notice that the cd plastic was a little thicker than the old filter, so this is going to be a tight fit.

You will probably have to sand the edges a little more so the plastic can sit a little closer to the photocell. Now the hard part is done and you are ready for step 2.

Step 2 In order to gain our second stop, we need to add a one-stop neutral density filter in front of the lens of the SX-70 camera. While there aren’t threads on the front of the lens, it is possible to screw a filter in if you “force” it. The size of filter that you need is 28mm.* There is only one problem with screwing a filter on this way: you can’t fold the camera down because the lens sticks out too far in front of the lens.

I plan on folding my camera down, so I decided to remove the glass from the filter and attach it directly in front of the lens. To get the glass out of the aluminum part of the filter, I used a needle nose pliers to bend the aluminum away from the filter. Once the aluminum was bent pack, the glass came out.

I suppose there are many ways to actually attach the glass, but I decided on hot glue. I was afraid that if I used super glue, the glue would run onto the lens and I wouldn’t be able to clean it off. Hot glue worked just fine.

Step 3 We are done with all the modifications to the camera and now all you have to do is load the film. When you look inside the empty space where the film will go, you will see a piece of square metal sticking up. This spring is what catches on the two center “nubs” of the 600 film cartridge.

You can either cut the nubs off, or you can use a card, or old Polaroid picture to cover the nubs as you slide the film in. First, insert the card in the empty camera.

Next, insert the film cartridge.

When the film has passed the spring, you can remove the card and insert the cartridge the rest of the way.

Finally close the camera. When the door closes, the camera should eject the dark slide. You are now ready to use your modified SX-70 camera!

*(At this point in the mod, I discovered that I already had a couple neutral density filters that were 28mm. What are the odds? The filters were made for my Nikon Coolpix 995. Unfortunately, I only had an ND4 and an ND8 which are equivalent to two stops and four stops respectively. I decided that rather than purchase a one-stop filter, I would use the two stop ND4 filter. I put the filter back in front of the photo cell since the ND4 filter gave me the two stops that I needed.)

Ebay is a great place to shop for the Polaroid SX-70. Here’s what is on Ebay right now:

Rare Tan Polaroid Pronto! SX-70 Instant Land Camera Kit

US $86.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 6:55:50 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $99.99 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar OneStep land camera + box; SX70

US $73.00 (7 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 10:14:40 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

vintage polaroid sx70 model 3 with box

US $5.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 10:22:21 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

POLAROID SX-70 LAND CAMERA ACCESSORY KIT IN BOX 5 ITEMS

US $46.00 (4 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 10:41:28 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Polaroid Pronto! SX-70 Instant Land Camera Kit Working

US $68.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 10:45:23 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $77.99 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list

Polaroid sx70 Model 2 Land Camera/Original 5 manuals EC

US $9.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 10:53:43 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

POLAROID SX-70 ONE STEP RAINBOW LAND CAMERA

US $15.50 (4 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 11:07:33 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar Onestep Land Camera Great shape

US $11.49 (3 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 11:27:56 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar Onestep Land Camera Excellent

US $30.33 (7 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 11:35:56 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Vintage Polaroid Land Camera Lot SX-70 One Step Sun 600

US $93.00 (8 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 11:39:56 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

My father-in-law gave me this great old folding Polaroid camera a couple weeks ago. After doing some research on the camera I was disappointed to learn that the film was recently discontinued. It looks like the “Time-Zero” film is only available on Ebay. If anyone has some other good resources for getting some film, let me know.

Ebay is a great place to shop for the Polaroid SX-70. Here’s what is on Ebay right now:

Rare Tan Polaroid Pronto! SX-70 Instant Land Camera Kit

US $86.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 6:55:50 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $99.99 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar OneStep land camera + box; SX70

US $73.00 (7 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 10:14:40 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

vintage polaroid sx70 model 3 with box

US $5.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 10:22:21 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

POLAROID SX-70 LAND CAMERA ACCESSORY KIT IN BOX 5 ITEMS

US $46.00 (4 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 10:41:28 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Polaroid Pronto! SX-70 Instant Land Camera Kit Working

US $68.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 10:45:23 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $77.99 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list

Polaroid sx70 Model 2 Land Camera/Original 5 manuals EC

US $9.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 10:53:43 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

POLAROID SX-70 ONE STEP RAINBOW LAND CAMERA

US $15.50 (4 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 11:07:33 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar Onestep Land Camera Great shape

US $11.49 (3 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 11:27:56 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Polaroid SX-70 Sonar Onestep Land Camera Excellent

US $30.33 (7 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 11:35:56 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Vintage Polaroid Land Camera Lot SX-70 One Step Sun 600

US $93.00 (8 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 11:39:56 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Being relatively new to shooting with polaroid 55 film, I didn’t take into account the cold teperature when I was shooting with my pinhole camera last weekend. I waited the usual 25 seconds before pulling apart the print from the negative. The print looked really good, and I assumed the negative would be normal. But when I scanned in the negatives, I was surprised to see alot of solarization. Apparently you need to add development time when you are shooting in cold teperatures. Actually, I was quite pleased with the solarization, and will probably do this again in the future just to get this solarization effect.

The Polaroid 95a Land camera was manufactured from 1954-1957. It is a beautiful camera, and it is a shame that they don’t make film for it anymore. When my friend gave me this camera, I knew I had to modify it somehow to make it usable. I came close to modifying it so I could use it with my Polaroid 545 back, but I couldn’t bring myself to hack off the back of this camera. So, I decided to convert the Polaroid 95a to accept medium format 120 film. A quick measurement showed that I should be able to get a 6×10 image on 120 film. Here are the instructions for how to modify a Polaroid 95a to a usable 6×10 medium format camera. Oh, and I fabricated most of the new camera assembly out of Legos.

The first, and maybe the hardest part of modifying our Polaroid 95a camera is going to be stripping out all the rollers and unnecessary parts. We need to make as much room for our medium format Lego assembly as possible. I used a needle nose pliers, a drill to drill out the rivets, a hammer, and alot of elbow grease. Here is what your gutted Polaroid 95a looks like after you remove all the rollers:

With the hard part out of the way, you are ready to play with legos. To advance the film, you will need to drill a hole in the top of the camera to put your film advance knob through. My hole wasn’t in exactly the right place so you can see where I used a dremmel to make a little more room on the right (this is looking at it from the top):

I used a larger gear to turn a smaller gear. This allows one turn of the knob to advance the film one frame. The downside is that it puts a little too much pressure on the gears and if I am not careful it will miss a gear.

The next step is to build the part that will hold the spool. Here is a closer look at my assembly with and without the spool:

There isn’t a lego piece that will fit perfectly in a 120 spool so we will have to fabricate our own. A Dremmel and some sand paper should do the trick. Here is the before and after photo:

The left side of the camera is where the unexposed roll of film will sit. This side is less complex than the film advance side because all it has to do is hold the film. A size 8 lego fits almost perfectly here. Keep in mind that you want the spool to be exactly straight accross from the spool on the other side so it doesn’t bind. It should look like this:

Now that we have a place for the spool on both sides, it is time to build a guide in the center. This keeps the film tight and prevents it from getting off the spool on the right. I used matte board and it looked like this after the film is loaded:

Now all you have to do is fill any holes and test it out. It is a good idea to waste a roll of 120 film so that you can test your advance knob and make sure everything lines up. If any piece is loose or not perfectly aligned it will cause problems. I had to tweak things quite a bit before it loaded and advanced properly.

You are now ready to take pictures. There is one other thing to keep in mind before you start shooting up film. Old Polaroid cameras had their own system of “light values.” Rather than setting the shutter and aperture separately, the Polaroid 95a has 8 different settings (1-8). Don’t ask me the reason for this setup, but I can show you this chart that shows what each setting actually is in terms of shutter speed and aperture:

Polaroid #	Aperature	Shutter Speed
1	f/8.8	1/12
2	f/8.8	1/25
3	f/8.8	1/50
4	f/8.8	1/100
5	f/12.5	1/100
6	f/17.5	1/100
7	f/25	1/100
8	f/35	1/100

The chart above uses information taken from www.rhwhirled.com which is a great resource if you want to learn more about the Polaroid 95a or many other older Polaroid cameras. Good luck with your modifications and drop me an email if you decide to undertake this hack.

Ebay is my favorite place to find deals on great old cameras. Here are the Polaroid 95a cameras on Ebay right now:

vintage Polaroid 95 A land camera NICE POLAROID 95 A

US $9.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Monday Aug-02-2010 8:17:23 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

VINTAGE POLAROID LAND CAMERA 95 A W/ CASE AND EXTRAS

US $14.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Monday Aug-02-2010 19:04:38 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

I gave you a teaser about the Polaroid 545 pinhole camera I have been building in my post about how to make a homemade shutter. Well, my camera is finished, and here are a couple of its features and how I built them…

Polaroid 545 back: I purshased a Polaroid 545 back on Ebay for $30 before shipping. If you watch the auctions, you should be able to get a back at a comparable price. If you have money to burn, you could get the 545i or one of the new pro models, but that isn’t necessary. Once I got the Polaroid back and cleaned the rollers, all I did was build my camera around it.

Tripod Mount: With the long exposures needed for a pinhole polaroid camera, I need to attach the camera to a tripod. Since my camera is made of weak plastic and matte board, I had to attatch a piece of metal to the bottom to increase the strength. My tripod has one of those removable plastic tops, so I simply used a screw and a nut to attatch the plastic tripod piece to the metal bottom of my pinhole camera.

Shutter with bulb mode: I wanted a better system for my shutter rather than the old black electrical tape method. I talk about how I built my homemade shutter here, but I have since made one improvement. I attatched a shutter release cable to reduce the camera shake even more.

Variable Focal Lengths: I have three separate “lenses” that give me variable focal lengths. This basically gives me a wide-angle 75mm, a 100mm, and a telephoto 150mm. The 75mm attachment slides in the front, the 100mm is even with the front, and the 150mm sticks out of the front.

Laser Drilled Pinholes: With the price of Polaroid film at about $3 a sheet, you want to be sure you can get a good exposure. Normally I would recommend making your own pinholes, but if you buy a laser drilled pinhole, you can be sure you have a clean hole as well as knowing the exact size of your hole. Using a pinhole calculator, you can figure out the f-stop and then determine your exposure time.

Polaroid 55 film: I pretty much planning on using mainly Polaroid 55 film. For those of you unfamiliar with Polaroid 55 film, itis a black and white film that gives you both a positive print as well as a negative. It is really amazing when you think about it. I am planning on scanning the negative and making prints from that high resolution scan.

Ground Glass: Ok, I don’t have this feature yet, but it is in the works. My plan is to cut a hole out of the back of my camera which will be replaced by a 4×5 piece of ground glass. If I use a bigger hole than a pinhole, I will be able to see a blurry image on the glass.

This has been a fun camera to build, and on my first couple times out, I have been rewarded with some very satisfying images. I plan on posting them this week, so stay tuned.

Ebay is my favorite place to find deals on great old cameras. Here are the Polaroid backs on Ebay right now:

Polaroid 545 Pro Back

US $40.00 (1 Bid) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 18:22:09 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Polaroid Back 545 Pro + Polaroid Film + More 4x5 LF

US $60.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Tuesday Aug-03-2010 13:49:13 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Polaroid 4x5 Land Film Holder #545 Film Back Photograph

US $49.99 End Date: Tuesday Aug-03-2010 18:13:21 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $49.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list

Polaroid Model 545 film back

US $15.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Friday Aug-06-2010 15:46:45 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

RARE build a Polaroid 600 SE 4x5 film back #545 600SE

US $0.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Saturday Aug-07-2010 16:15:57 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Lot of 2 Polaroid 545 Land Film Holder Film Back

US $59.00 End Date: Wednesday Aug-11-2010 13:23:57 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $59.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list

The Polaroid camera I found is a Polaroid Onestep Closeup. This turned out to be an ideal camera to modify because of the closeup feature, as you will see when I explain the shutter system I created.

The first thing you have to do is to pull off the front face to get to the guts of the camera. Be somewhat careful not to break the faceplate because we will be reusing it. Use a blade to pry up a corner and with a little pressure it should snap open.

We won’t need the lens, so simply pop it out. Keep the parts, you never know when you might need them:

You should be able to see how the shutter opens and closes as you push the lever on the left back and forth. Since most Polaroids that use 600 film don’t have batteries (they get power from the film pack) it can be a little hard to tell what you can remove, and what has to stay. My original plan was to use the existing shutter by making a switch with a paperclip. Unfortunately, this won’t work because once the camera gets power, you can’t manually release the shutter. Here is what my first failed attempt looked like:

This worked good in theory, but once the film was added, it started spitting out film. Time for plan B. We need to fool the camera into thinking that the shutter is working normally. That means that you will have to remove the shutter completely. This wasn’t as easy as it would seem. There isn’t anything to unscrew or remove to let you easily remove the shutter. You can’t drill through the shutter because this will lock things up. I used a needle nose pliers to break apart and pull the shutter out. This is probably the hardest part of our Polaroid modification because it is hard to tell if you got all the shutter parts out.

With the shutter out of the way, all we have to do is add a pinhole. I cut a small circle out of a piece of tin from a soda can. Press a needle into the tin, but don’t make a hole. Turn the tin over and sand on the impression from the needle until a small hole appears. Cut a circular piece of black electrical tape, and use it to tape the pinhole where the shutter used to be. I don’t get caught up with measuring my pinholes and calculating focal lengths/apertures/shutter speeds, but there are plenty of online calculators if you want to be more precise. This is what mine looked like:

Now we just need an easy way to cover and uncover our pinhole. You can expect your exposure time to be about 0.5 seconds on a sunny day. That means that we will have to manually open and close the shutter, and we can’t just cover the pinhole with black electrical tape. We need something more efficient. The Onestep Closeup has a unique feature that other polaroids don’t. It has a switch that allows you to take closeup pictures. Pushing the switch pushes a thin lens in front of the main lens. If we cover the closup lens with tape, we can use this as our shutter. Normally, the closeup lens isn’t used, so it is made with a spring that pulls it off. We want to reverse this spring so that by default, the closup lens is covering the pinhole. This modification will allow us to pull the switch to uncover our pinhole, and then it will snap shut. Here is how to do it. Remove the spring and slide the Closeup lens off. Cover the lens with tape. I used aluminum duct tape, but electrical tape should work fine. Next, drill a small hole in the corner opposite of the lens. A bent end of the paperclip will go in this hole for extra strength. The bent paperclip will look like this:

Next, tape the paperclip down and attach the spring to the left. Now our shutter will snap shut. It should look like this:

In order for our new shutter system to work, we will have to remove some plastic. The plastic is relatively soft, so you can easily break it off with a pliers. Don’t use a router or saw, because the bits of plastic will get in the camera and you will never be able to clean it out. Here is a look at the front of the camera after the plastic was removed:

Now all that is left is to snap the faceplate back onto the camera. Here is what it should look like with the shutter open and closed:

Your done. Now you have a cheap pinhole polaroid camera. To prove that it works, here are a couple pictures of flower and my son and his toy truck that I took this morning. These were approximately 0.5 second exposures, and they were hand held. I may have to modify it again to add a tripod mount.

An interesting side note is that our pinhole modification allows this “Closeup” camera to focus even closer up. Since pinhole cameras don’t have a lens, everything is in focus at any distance. By nature pinholes have an infinite depth of field. Any blur that appears is due to the subject moving, the camera moving, or from a pinhole that is too large.

Unfortunately, the film will still cost you a buck a picture. Film is expensive. If you liked this tutorial and want to tackle another Polaroid modification, I also have made a pinhole camera that works with a 545 Polaroid back. For those who don’t know, a 545 takes large 4×5 Polaroid film. That tutorial can be found here.