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Welcome to Techsurvivors => Tech => Topic started by: gunug on September 08, 2011, 03:51:12 PM

Title: The return of Heathkit and the Polaroid SX-70
Post by: gunug on September 08, 2011, 03:51:12 PM

What goes around comes around or something like that. I first heard about this (on NPR) a couple of months ago that someone was producing Polaroid SX-70 instant film as a "cottage industry" and now someone (the same someone?) is reselling refurbed SX-70's:

http://www.gizmag.com/photojojo-restored-p...id-sx-70/19764/

And also Heathkit (or whoever owns the name) is going to produce Kits to build wonderful things again:

http://www.eetimes.com/discussion/break-po...system=embedded

I still have my Heathkit Shortwave Radio and more importantly I have the darn construction manual, schematics, and theory of operation so I can fix it whenever I find the right caps! Fun Times to live in!

Title: The return of Heathkit and the Polaroid SX-70
Post by: Xairbusdriver on September 08, 2011, 09:22:23 PM

Almost bought a Zenith/HeathKit, once...Z89? TRS-80 was two expensive but finally got an Apple ][ with 16384 whole bytes of memory!!!

Title: The return of Heathkit and the Polaroid SX-70
Post by: krissel on September 09, 2011, 11:45:33 PM

Now that's creepy. Just two days ago Dad and I were going through some boxes and he unearthed his pristine SX-70. It was funny because he couldn't remember how to open it. I pulled up on the top piece and it popped open. I had remembered him doing just that many years ago when he took our pictures.

We had a discussion about how innovative they were at the time but how expensive the pics were compared to regular film. We both decided that digital cameras of today made for a much cheaper and more satisfying experience.

Title: The return of Heathkit and the Polaroid SX-70
Post by: Xairbusdriver on September 10, 2011, 08:38:17 AM

Well, digital is certainly cheaper (assuming you don't print all of them!). But I'm not sure about the "satisfying" part. It is still the only way to take a picture and get a 'hard' copy result in a matter of seconds...in the middle of a wilderness...and no batteries required!

Of course, you get to pay for that convenience whether you want to or not. And if you want a second copy...wait till you get back to the power grid and a computer/printer/'drug' store!

It was just another push toward instant gratification.

Title: The return of Heathkit and the Polaroid SX-70
Post by: gunug on September 10, 2011, 09:25:43 AM

QUOTE

I didn't have the SX-70 but only the "One-Step" and it was dropped one too many times and no longer had photo-integrity. It was fun while it lasted!

Title: The return of Heathkit and the Polaroid SX-70
Post by: tacit on September 12, 2011, 04:10:54 PM

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Sep 9 2011, 02:22 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Almost bought a Zenith/HeathKit, once...Z89? TRS-80 was two expensive but finally got an Apple ][ with 16384 whole bytes of memory!!!

I had a Heathkit H89 for a while. It used special "hard sectored" 5.25" floppies and ran its own operating system, HDOS. I never used it for anything; was more partial to TRS-80s, of which I've owned many.

Title: The return of Heathkit and the Polaroid SX-70
Post by: gunug on September 12, 2011, 05:17:49 PM

When I was working at the University of Kansas I was asked to receive and setup a number of Zenith Z-100 computers which ran CP/M and Z-DOS (a version of MS-DOS) and they became my real beginnings with computer (although I had at least touched an original lunchbox MAC during that period as well). I liked the Z-100 because it had a "Selectric type keyboard" layout and would run 5-1/4" and 8" floppy drives (later 20 Meg Hard drives). I had looked into the Heath version of these computers at one point but ended up buying Commodore 64's and Kaypro computers instead.