I woke up this morning, and for some reason or another, started looking for estate sales on craigslist in the hopes of seeing something interesting for sale. I stumbled upon one in particular that had a vague description about a camera collection just on the other side of town. I scrolled through some of the photos they had posted and noticed what looked to be a SX-70 case beside some junky 35mm cameras. Oh ya. That’s the winner. I had about an hour to get there so I grabbed an empty film pack to test it and ran out the door.
Hit a good amount of traffic on the way but managed to get there with about 10 minutes to spare. As I approached the house, I noticed a good amount of people outside .. probably 40+. Everyone was waiting in a line and a few were gathered underneath a tree in the yard. Hmmmm … haha. I had to do something to get inside and get to that camera first. After a little while, I saw a few people looking through the front windows. I moseyed my way up to the porch fake-texting on my phone and reached the front of the house. Typically, I would not condone this type of behavior BUT in this circumstance .. I figured it was probably OK. I peeked in the window and saw a pristine Polaroid case sitting on a table along with a few other cameras. The door opened up and I heard “OK – We are going to take the first 30 people …” Well .. I did come all this way for the camera. I snuck inside and went directly to it, pulled it out of the case just a little bit (pristine condition), noticed the sticker price ($70) and I went to the front to pay. “You sure were on a mission weren’t you??” The lady said .. haha. On my way out the door I hear a few people asking where the cameras were .. sorry guys.
Once I got to the car, I put an empty pack of film in the camera and knocked off a few exposures. It sounded great! Happy with the new acquisition I cruised back home.
Once I got there, I started fiddling with it again and then noticed, the whirring noise it was making when doing its ejecting business, was sounding a little strained. I pulled the pack out and put it back in and the whirring started … but then the motor kept running. The mechanism that spits out the dark slide & photos was not working .. haha. NooooooOOOOoOo! I just got this thing … I took the pack out and searched online for a fix.
I found a couple so I pulled out the tools. Now I thought about writing this blog post AFTER I had already taken off the back cover so you’ll just have to imagine what that looked like 😉 I just pulled off the leather from the corner using a little screwdriver to first start removing it and then I peeled back the foil cover that was glued to the back. The steps are:
Phew! That was close! Now if you’re wondering, there are SX-70 leather replacement kits online. They are about $20. Anyhow, I put in a pack of Impossible Project PX-70 old gen stuff and took a quick test shot …
It looks to be working fine! Can’t wait to shoot the rest of this pack over the next day or so ..