Welcome back to another edition of Dr. Love’s Tips, where Impossible USA’s camera resource manager Frank Love provides you with insight that allows you to get the best out of your Polaroid camera and Impossible film. This week: Viewfinder dysfunction…
Have you ever had the viewfinder on your SX-70 or SLR 680 suddenly go kind of…limp?
It’s ok, it can happen to 1 out of every 5 instant film shooters.
Symptoms can show themselves as:
1. a viewfinder that won’t fully close or open
2. what appears to be a black viewfinder when looking into it (see also: Mirror, Mirror blog post)
3. a small piece of metal sticking out the side of the skirt around the VF.
This can often be a simple issue in which the spring that hooks onto the mirror within the VF has come off the little bit of plastic on the mirror that it grabs to. So long as the piece of the mirror hasn’t broken, here’s a simple fix to put the spring back in place.
Using the provided reference images, first press lightly on the top front of the black skirt that covers the front of the VF. This is to undo the two clips which keep it in place. From here you can slide it down to see the back of the mirror in the VF. Now, find the hooked spring and put the ‘cane-like’ loop of the spring over the little black plastic piece that extends off the mirror. Ensure that when you press down on the top of the VF that it stays on, and once again has some spring to it. You may need to bend the spring slightly to get it straight so it stays hooked on the mirror.
To replace the skirt, simply press the top piece of the VF down, and ‘tuck’ the clips back under the inside of the top piece, they should clip right back in. If the skirt was bent or damaged in whatever caused the spring to dislodge in the first place, this may be little trickier. Be sure NOT to bend the skirt yourself, or force anything when taking it off or ‘re-clipping’ it.
With any luck your VF should look as good as it did before, and be springy to the touch. If your VF still looks black, refer to the Mirror, Mirror post or SX-70 Troubleshooting guide for help. As always,
Keep your rollers clean
-f
I just wanted to thank you so much for this little tutorial — and all the tutorials on the website, really. I’d been stymied by my SX-70’s “black viewfinder,” but reading this article solved my problem, & now everything is a-okay. Thanks again.
I have a problem that is keeping me from spending more money with you all.. My shutter has just started not opening.When I look into the view finder I see black. The SX-70 will spit out film. Is there any thing I can do to fix this camera. Any Idea’s?
Signed T.W. Sharp photographer for the MIM (Musical Instrument Museum) Phoenix, AZ 480.440.9696