Retrospekt — Local services in Milwaukee

Retrospekt Review - Do Not Buy From Retrospekt This is a long story but I'll try to keep it as short as possible. I bought a Polaroid SX-70 Camera - Model 2 × 1 Converted to 600 for $349.00. This is a refurbished camera. I also bought a strap as the camera in the photo had the proper holes for a strap. When I received the camera they let me know that it was not the same one as the photo and that the strap does not work with that model. This is fine, I should have done more research. This strap is very thin and small. They said I can return it to them I'll need to pay a restocking fee of 5%. Which is around 75 cents. Okay… with the shipping back to them, which would be a few dollars. At this point I just decided to keep it. It was an okay strap and I'll find a use for it. — Not to get into this but if I bought on Ebay from them instead of their site, there would not have been a restocking fee. This brings me to the camera. The First pack of film worked great. Some light leaks and color issues but I was expecting to have these. This was within the first week or so since I received the camera. Then the 2nd pack, I shot more sparingly. These photos are about $2.50 a piece so this time around I was more careful with what I shot. Halfway through the pack the camera stopped ejecting the film. Retrospekt told me to buy more film. So I did and the same thing happened with a new pack. Finally I asked for a return. Since I first contacted them with an issue, the return window, 14 days closed. So the only choice was to send it back to them for repair. If I had just asked for a repair instead of asking questions, this whole thing would not have happened. They are very slow to respond to emails. This means that since it took them a day per response my return window passed. — Not to get into this but if I bought from them on Ebay instead of their site, there would not have had an issue returning. They get the camera and say nothing. I reach out to them asking for an update and they say that it works fine with all of their film. Not sure why they never reached out to me, I needed to contact them. They then send it back to me. After trying the same 'non-working' pack of film, it now works. So it was not the film, it was the camera and they say they did not change or fix anything but now it works…. So now a few months later - since quarantine I don't go out and I also didn't want to waste money on film if it was not going to work - I shoot a photo and it's completely over exposed. Shoot another and it's completely over exposed. I'm done with this. The 3rd barely came out. So that's $7.50 in photos that are not usable for anything. Do yourself a favor. Do not buy from these guys. Do not buy form Retrospekt. If you have to and I didn't talk you out of it, then buy from their eBay store, that way eBay will get your money back for you if there's an issue. These photos were taken on an overcast day. No special adjustments.

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My response to the replay. "as you recently expressed in an email to us — you no longer wish to work towards a solution, and we sincerely regret we couldn't come to a satisfying end point."

So they want me to send it back to them so that they can, test a 2nd time and say that it works after weeks of waiting. Not to mention they take over 24hrs to answer an email. Be on the look out for my Youtube review and other platforms.

By the they NEVER responded to my last email. It's only...

I purchased a Polaroid SX-70 for my wife as an anniversary gift in 2022. She used it several times over the course of a few months, shooting around 4 or 5 packs of film with it before experiencing a delay with the film ejection. An entire pack of film came out blurry due to the delay, which is when I reached out to the Retrospekt team. I was told that it was no longer covered by the 90-day warranty and that I would have to pay $65 to have it repaired plus the cost of shipping to send it back.

I asked if they could waive the repair and shipping costs in this case, but they were not willing to do so. They cited the age of camera, which is over 50 years old, but I have cameras that are over 90 years old that have run smoothly for years without the need for repairs.

I'm extremely disappointed in Retrospekt. I initially bought two other SX-70 cameras for my wife on eBay, each time having to return the camera due to misleading/inaccurate website descriptions and one sort of defect or another. It was then that I decided to purchase from Retrospekt on account of all the amazing things I'd heard about the company, even though it was outside of my budget. I knew that by purchasing from them I wouldn't have to go through the same experience again.

My wife used the camera less than half a dozen times. She babied it, and there isn't a mark on it. She loaded the film carefully and properly each time she used it. If the defect were a result of her accidentally damaging the camera in some way, then of course we would have no problem paying for the repair. 90-day warranty aside, is Retrospekt unable to guarantee the operation of its cameras beyond four or five uses? I hope this is not the case because we can't afford to pay $65 plus shipping every few times she uses the camera.

This, in my mind, is not a reasonable solution to the problem. I felt compelled to write this review after watching this beautiful $350 camera sit in my bookcase like an expensive paperweight for the past...

If you’re reading this. This is the place. This is the business I would go to for camera or retro related services or gear. I ordered a single roll of film that’s hard to find for a decent price and I saw stickers in the package that had polaroids on the sheet. Little did Retrospekt know I have had a bit of a dilema with my own polaroid front view element getting fungus rendering the viewing nearly impossible with how much it took over the front element. I didn’t even understand how that was possible because I was almost certain it was plastic and not glass. But sure enough it was fungus somehow and ruined it enough that it dug into the element. I contacted Polaroid DIRECTLY via email and explained my dilema. I asked to see if essentially they had replacement view finders for the one step 2, as well as if not if they do repairs or know of how to fix it. To which they responded “We do not manufacture replacement parts. We do not sell replacement parts to consumers or have any intention of doing so for the foreseeable future. We appreciate your inquiry but essentially there is nothing we can do, then essentially said If you need any more assistance feel free to reply to this email. Like, Really? You basically told me, you cannot help me, but then said if you need help contact us again? Really polaroid? I understand Polaroid isn’t what it was before, but for their brand to kinda just shove a loyal customer for years under the rug and stomp on me? That’s where Retrospekt came in. I messaged them on Instagram not thinking anything would come from it, but ya know I thought why not try. Sure enough they responded and sure it took like a few days for any response I wasn’t expecting but today they responded saying they found the piece I need! I was and am absolutely elated to know I’ll Have my Polaroid camera running again at it’s full capacity! Thank you Retrospekt. I am eager to visit your store in person in...