Polaroid SLR 680

Meet the evil twin of the Polaroid SX-70: the Polaroid SLR 680, a legend among the legends!

It all started a year ago when I was looking around for a decent Polaroid camera to play around with. My friend actually got me interested in the famous SX-70 foldies, but at that point of time, the Time Zero films are already out of production and modifications need to be done to the SX-70 to shoot 600 films.

While I was researching on the internet about the SX-70s, I chance upon a website(can’t remember which already!) that introduced the SLR 680. What caught my eye is the similarities it has with the SX-70s and most importantly, it shoots 600 film natively! This would mean that I do not have to modify anything(and break anything) to shoot a Polaroid!

So I started hunting around for a decent SLR 680(or SLR 690) from my local used camera shops all the way to eBay! Well.. it took me 8 eBay auctions before I manage to get my hands on it. And thank goodness it works perfectly well(it was an AI-IS item).

The SLR 680 is similar to the SX-70 Sonar model, which featured a function sonar(the golden round thingy in the middle), which is capable of very accurately measure the distance between the Polaroid and the subject. (It probably only don’t work if u are cam-whoring yourself using a mirror). And the best part of the SLR 680 is, it has its own built-in flash, something that most SX-70 models do not have. The flash is pretty accurate as it will adjust the level of flash based on the distance that was read off the sonar, giving me proper exposure for every shot.

My SLR 680 got me amazed by the types of shots that a Polaroid can produce. One of the effects that shocked me bad was the bokeh effect that it is capable of doing. I never knew that Polaroids can do it back then and when the shot came out, I was pretty amazed. It kinda made me love my SLR 680 more!

The other amazing effect that the SLR 680 can do, is a short 5-second long exposure. But for this effect, it’s more or less a love-hate relationship because the metering will not be really accurate and once in a while, if it’s too dark, I do get blanks or really underexposed shot.

There are quite a number of SLR 680 popping up in auctions and estate sales if you wish to get one but it is probably more uncommon than the SX-70, therefore, finding one might be a little harder as compared to the SX-70s. And it’s a pity that 600 films are also dead(for the time being). If not, it will probably be the best Polaroid(for me) that was ever made.

écrit par dotdotdot le 2009-08-30 dans #équipement #review #slr #instant #polaroid-600 #polaroid #slr-680