Finding a camera repair shop can be a challenging adventure. The days of being able to send a vintage camera into any one of a wide network of national repair facilities are over. At the time of their heyday, these repair centers were regionally located and you just picked the closest one, boxed up your broken camera, added a payment, and shipped it off. Fast forward to today and even if you could find a repair shop, a good, competent repair technician is as old as the camera that you’re trying to repair. In other words, these repair experts have closed the shop and they are retired. End of story.
A recent trip through a local thrift store yielded a remarkable Polaroid SX-70 Sonar OneStep Pronto Land Camera in near perfect cosmetic condition. Astonishingly enough, the price was only $9. This “steal” was purchased and loaded with a brand new pack of SX-70 Black & White film. The black dark slide sheet was immediately ejected from the camera and everything “sounded” functional. It was only after pressing the shutter release button and nothing happened that the $9 price tag showed its true value.
Sure enough, the sonar mechanism moved the lens for focusing, but the motor failed to eject the film. This was a broken camera with no hope for repair. That is, until a little known repair capability of Retrospekt was (re)discovered. You’ll recall that DIYP published an article about Retrospekt selling gold-plated Rollei 35 cameras. Well, as luck would have it, they also repair Polaroid cameras.
[Please note: Retrospekt also sells conventional (non-gold-plated) Rollei 35 cameras for $399, as well as now offering a significant $400 discount on a gold-plated Polaroid SX-70 for $599.]
Unlike other vintage camera repair shops, however, the Retrospekt team was trained by veteran Polaroid technicians. Similarly, all of the replacement parts used by Retrospekt for repairing a broken Polaroid camera have been salvaged and refurbished from original stock. Therefore, when they repair your camera, you’ll receive a 100% refurbished, like new again, camera that will be both functional and in excellent cosmetic condition.
What’s Old Finally Works, Again
As a test of their repair promises, this broken thrift shop $9 Polaroid was sent to Retrospekt for service. The selected repair option for a plastic Polaroid Sonar OneStep camera costs $79. This price included shipping and handling to Retrospekt, as well as return shipping and handling. Furthermore, this damaged camera will be returned in a new box with a user guide and a complete repair report.
While the originally promised service turnaround time was stated as “two weeks,” the total elapsed time for this repair was 41 days. In defense of Retrospekt, this duration included a national holiday plus several weekends. Additionally, the shipping to Retrospekt consumed six of those days. So, this was a very agreeable timeframe considering the transformation of a non-working vintage camera into a, like new, completely functional Polaroid camera.
The returned camera was in an impressive fully restored condition. You could tell that this $9 Polaroid camera had been treated with loving restoration attention in every aspect of repair and reconditioning. To begin with, the actual camera was wrapped inside a sealed plastic bag that was packaged inside two boxes. Awesome! Additionally, the outer box was covered with helpful text, camera condition disclaimers, and topnotch custom graphics. It actually makes you feel like you’ve made a smart investment in your camera’s future.
Accompanying this nifty packaging is a detailed “repair report.” This sheet of paper includes the camera serial number and the actual date of repair. Furthermore, each major assembly and subassembly (e.g., body shell, sonar autofocus, lens assembly, etc.) is itemized with three possible actions: Inspected & cleaned, repaired, and replaced. In the case of this $9 thrift shop repair order, every aspect of this camera was either inspected and cleaned and/or replaced. Not a single item was listed as “repaired.” Thank you, Retrospekt.
Oh, and the best part of this repair project…it comes with a warranty! Yes, you read that right. Retrospekt includes a 90-day warranty with this formally $9 broken camera. That’s yet another indication of how strongly Retrospekt believes in and endorses its repair service.
Finally, the shipping container was stuffed with stickers. Yes, some of them are a bit eclectic, but Retrospekt is a bit eclectic, too. In addition to this treasure trove of stickers, a new User Guide, authored by Retrospekt, was slipped inside the plastic bag (with another sticker). But the perfect accent to this entire repair was the inclusion of a “Mystery Pin” inside the shipping container. What was it? You’ll have to repair your own wayward Polaroid SX-70 camera to find out.
The best way to judge the repair work performed by Retrospekt on this Polaroid Sonar OneStep Pronto Land Camera is by studying its SX-70 prints. You be the judge. Is this like new again camera now able to produce “perfekt” photographs in an instant?
Enjoy.
