Polaroid Onestep SX-70 – No Power Tip

Camera Corner: Polaroid Onestep SX-70 – No Power Tip

If you’ve got a vintage Onestep camera and you’re wondering why it won’t power on, here’s something that might help. Some vintage Polaroid OneStep cameras don’t have a separate battery compartment—the battery is actually built into the film pack itself.

👉 That means the camera usually only powers on if you load a fresh film pack that works with your specific model. No film, no power.

✅ A few examples of vintage OneStep models that rely on the battery in the film pack (based on my experience and help from ChatGPT):

Polaroid SX-70 (the camera featured in this video)
Polaroid OneStep Land Camera (some 600 series versions)
Polaroid 1000 OneStep
Polaroid OneStep CloseUp (early 600 type)

⚠️ Tip: It’s always worth researching your exact camera model and film type before buying film. For example, SX-70 cameras take SX-70 film, while many OneStep and CloseUp models use 600 film.

This is just something that’s worked for me—it may not solve every situation, but hopefully it saves you some time.