reawakening Spectras ...

[Godfrey]

In the Sargasso Sea of my Polaroid stuff are two Spectra SE Onyx models. These are darn cool as they have a translucent top cover—you can see all the electronics inside. They've been sitting for a bit, stored in the original presentation boxes.

Not good. I took them one of them out to take to a party last night and it had trouble pushing film through the processing rollers. I took the other one out ... same issue. That surprised me as both were working fine when I put them away a few months ago. I think it must be that something in the presentation box must be out-gassing and mucking up the works.

I reloaded a couple of film packs with processed prints and exercised them both. They're now both working, albeit a little hesitantly. Hopefully, running more film through them will clean out whatever has gummed them up.

The adventures of using Polaroids ... 🙂

G

 

[robert blu]

I reloaded a couple of film packs with processed prints and exercised them both. They're now both working, albeit a little hesitantly. Hopefully, running more film through them will clean out whatever has gummed them up.

The adventures of using Polaroids ... 🙂

G

Interesting idea, if I correctly understand you put some prints in the empty container and then you shoot. I think I have to try this with one of my sx70 where I only manage to shoot two or three shots than the camera does not eject the film anymore until I insert a new pack of film (and the old one works if inserted in another camera!).

robert

 

[Godfrey]

Interesting idea, if I correctly understand you put some prints in the empty container and then you shoot. I think I have to try this with one of my sx70 where I only manage to shoot two or three shots than the camera does not eject the film anymore until I insert a new pack of film (and the old one works if inserted in another camera!).

robert

Oh yes, it definitely works! I keep several recently used film holders around just to exercise the cameras before use with all my SX-70 and Spectra cameras ... push an empty in and fire the shutter a few times to be sure the mechanism is working.

When a camera proves a little sticky, loading up a film holder with exposed and processed photos and letting the camera cycle through them gets the drive motor, rollers, and gear train moving. I've resurrected several nearly-dead cameras this way.

Pushing fresh film through takes more energy: The rollers have to break the reagent pods and squeegee the reagent through the film. And if you've ever looked at it carefully, the path a print makes on the way out of the camera is torturously twisted to get that spreading to work evenly and completely. So even when you've exercised the camera quite a bit, it can still struggle for a while with fresh film.

Ultimately, of course, a drive motor can have damage that cannot be fixed by exercise. Then it's either junk the camera or send it off for repair. They're pretty tough, however, so do the exercise thing first. I find that of the ones I've come across have come to life nicely after I dry-shot them through 20-30 exposures, then pushed a pack of exposed films through them four or five times. The worse was a little Polaroid OneStep that belonged to a friend of mine's mother. He'd had it for at least fifteen years, sitting in the bottom of a drawer untouched with a half-used film pack in it. It took many tries even with an empty pack to get the mechanism rolling again, then I ran an exposed pack through it at least a dozen times. Now it works as if new again. 🙂

Good news! Since I wrote the first post in this thread this morning, I've gotten both cameras to consistently make four good exposures. One is still struggling a bit more than the others, but I feel confident that if I pump a couple of packs of film through each they'll be back up to snuff again. I won't store them in the presentation boxes any more—none of my other cameras are stored in the presentation boxes, and since I resurrected them after long being out of use, they've sat on the shelf for months without this kind of problem happening.

G

 

[Godfrey]

Happy to report that both my Spectra Onyx cameras are now back to clean functioning. They needed some exercise and use.. A couple packs of film through each and they're good to go. 🙂

G

 

[farlymac]

Alright! Been looking for an Onyx myself, but then mostly for the collection of see-through models I have. I have a regular Spectra that hadn't seen film in ages, but recently came across a set of filters for it is the zipper case. Will have to get some packs one of these days.

PF

 

[robert blu]

Thanks Godfrey for your explanation.
robert