Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera Instant camera

The Polaroid SX-70 is not just a camera, but one of the greatest icons of industrial design and photographic technology of the 20th century.

The founder of Polaroid, Edwin H. Land, always dreamed of an "absolute" camera. He wanted a object that could vanish in a jacket pocket and that, once taken out, would produce a printed photograph right before the user’s eyes, with no scraps to throw away.
In 1972, Land unveiled the SX-70 at Polaroid’s annual shareholders meeting. He went on stage, pulled the folded camera from his jacket pocket, opened it with a single gesture, and shot 5 photos in under ten seconds. It was a triumph.

The development of the SX-70 and its film cost Polaroid about a quarter of a billion dollars of the era. It was a huge industrial gamble.

The SX-70 introduced several absolute innovations for the era:
The folding single-lens reflex system: It is the first (and only) single-lens reflex camera in the world that can fully fold onto itself. To do this, engineers designed an internal system of aspherical mirrors that deflected light in a flexible way.

The "integral" film: Before the SX-70, Polaroid photos required manually separating the negative from the positive (leaving wet chemistry scraps). The new SX-70 Time-Zero film did it all by itself: it came out of the camera and developed in daylight, protected by a plastic layer.

The battery in the cartridge: To keep the camera as slim as possible, Land decided not to include a battery compartment in the body. The battery (flat and carbon-zinc) was integrated directly inside each individual film cartridge.

The SX-70 camera had a big pop impact and quickly became a status symbol. It cost $180 in 1972 (the equivalent of over $1,200 today), positioning it as a luxury object.

Andy Warhol was one of the foremost users of the SX-70. He used it constantly to shoot portraits of friends, celebrities, and to document his daily life at the Factory.
Designer Charles Eames (who also produced a famous promotional film for the camera) celebrated the SX-70 as the definitive artistic tool.

Production of the original SX-70 line ceased in the early 1980s, replaced by cheaper and more commercially-oriented models.

Closed Camera (Folded)
The dimensions are comparable to those of a pocket-sized book or a large diary:
Length: 17.5 cm
Width: 10.6 cm
Height/Thickness: 2.5 cm

Open Camera
Once extended into its classic triangular form, the volume increases substantially:
Length: 14.2 cm
Width: 10.6 cm
Height: 13.2 cm

The camera is complete with its original leather case.

Camera and case are both in pristine vintage condition.