Shipping a Six-Pack - Farewell to "Pops"

Not a lot of new development but I finally was able to finish up on a six camera repair order... the most challenging group I've had yet. The Model 1s in this group needed a lot of extensive repair ranging from ECM replacement, shutter blade cleaning and fresnel lens replacement. I have to keep telling myself the same thing I tell myself when I'm working on either of my VWs... these things are old and just machines. They aren't programmed to mess with my mind. Always start with the easiest fix and troubleshoot from there.

Part of this group is a camera I call "Pops". Pops is the oldest camera I have yet to work on (it's weird I'm calling him Pops... he's not much older than me). He is an original 1973 first-year very early model SX70. At some point in Pops' life he was taken to a Polaroid repair center and fitted with a replacement split-circle viewfinder as was offered back in the day. The original Model 1s were built without any focusing aid and proved to be very difficult for customers to get good shots. Polaroid offered those with early models to take their cameras in to have an upgrade to split-circle for free... pretty cool huh? Another thing interesting to note about Pops is that his serial # is stamped on the chassis underneath the shutter housing unlike later-on models that had the serial # marked under the upper mirror housing. It's amazing to see how the SX70 started with a very complex shutter system (TON of parts) then became greatly simplified as models progressed. It was fun to work on this on and in very good shape to begin with.

Nonetheless, I'm extremely happy with how these turned out and again, many thanks to a customer that I consider being one of the people that helped start off 2nd Shot... Thanks Steve! Shop's closed!


Minty cameras!

Gotta have my Pops!