Polaroid SX-70 Filter Project

First released in 1978 (This Sonar Model) and even by todays standards quite a revolutionary camera and extremely useful, the only downside is the Film supply is hit and miss, still made by Polaroid in batches throughout the year but once stock falls you need to wait until the next round, that is, film specifically for the SX-70 which I won’t go into the technical details as that has been covered a zillion times on the www.

But with some ingenuity supplied by others over the years, it’s possible to use the more common Polaroid 600 Film, more easily available and sometimes cheaper, in the SX-70 with no real loss of ability.

All your doing is reducing the light coming into the Camera as the original SX-70 Film is 160ASA and slower than Polaroid 600 (600ASA) Film, so just place a ND (Neutral Density) Filter over either the Film Pack or the Lens, even with the filter over the Lens the Camera focuses fine as long as it is bright enough. (If not, all you do is remove the filter, hold autofocus or manual focus and place filter back on camera).

There are other ways of course to adapt it for Polaroid 600 and i-Type Film but if you want to keep your SX-70 Original and keep its value then this and the Film Pack Filters (3rd Party ones are available as the original ones made by Polaroid are out of production) are the easiest, best and certainly the cheapest way to adapt your precious camera.

An ND4 (0.6) Filter (x2 Stops) will stop enough light to bring the 600 Film to roughly were you need to be, it’s not precise but you’ll get there with some fine tuning of the exposure dial on the camera, the next update will include Pics.

[Addendum 03/10/24] Added picture of 600 Film Pack & SX-70 Film Pack for comparison.

Technical Details: 3D ABS Printing done as a favour by my friends at Animation Toolkit ~ Kood 32/37mm Step Up Ring ~ Regent NOS 37mm ND4 Filter ~ Free 3D Print STL File kindly made by James Tipton

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