Dead Stock: The Clear Polaroid Spectra Onyx
Start with the body. The Onyx is a Polaroid Spectra molded in smoked, translucent plastic, so you can see the electronics through the housing. Same camera as the regular Spectra underneath. The clear shell is the only change.
Dates first. The Spectra system launched in 1986 at just under $250 for the first model. It was sold as the Spectra in the US and as the Image System in Europe, same camera, two names. The Onyx followed in 1987 as a special edition. That is the whole timeline, and it is a short one for a camera people still collect.
How to read a Spectra
Three things do the work.
The lens is a 125mm f/10 three-element design Polaroid called Quintic. The focus is sonar. The camera sends a sound pulse at the middle of the scene, times the echo, and sets the distance. It reads from about 2 feet to infinity, and there is a switch to turn it off for shooting through glass, because glass bounces the pulse back early. If you have ever wondered why a Spectra clicks before it fires, that is the sound.
The film is the part people get wrong. Spectra film used the same 600 emulsion as the square 600 packs, but cut into a wider rectangle, roughly 9.2 by 7.3 cm against 7.9 square. Same chemistry, different frame. A 600 pack does not fit and was never meant to.
The third thing is the pack itself. Ten exposures, and a fresh battery sealed inside that runs the whole camera. The counter on the body counts down from 10 when a pack is loaded. So the camera has no battery of its own to die in a drawer. The power lives in the film. A Spectra without a pack is a body waiting for its battery, and that is the version of this camera that sits in a lot of closets.
The Laser Print envelope
The listing says the case comes with a Polaroid Laser Print mail-in envelope. The Spectra manual gives the context: Polaroid offered laser prints and enlargements of Spectra photographs, a mailer came in every box of film, and an order form sat on the back of the film cover. As far as I can read it, the envelope belongs to that service. I have not been able to confirm the exact promotion or the dates for this specific envelope, and I am not going to guess. The service needed photos, and the photos needed film.
The film is gone
On October 2, 2019, Polaroid Originals announced it was ending all Spectra film. The reasons it gave were specific. Film frequently failed to eject properly. Six months of testing found the fault completely random, with no simple fix. The CEO, Oskar Smolokowski, said the cameras were about three decades old and nearing the end of their useful lives, with jamming and breakdowns affecting most of them. A last batch stayed on sale for a few months for owners of cameras that still worked. Polaroid also said it could not support the cameras any longer.
Read that carefully, because it gets repeated sloppily. The film did not die because nobody wanted it. It died because the cameras wore out in a way the film could not fix. Those are different claims. A loose cart is a key that needs the right lock. Here the lock aged out.
What exists now is leftover film of unknown age, expired and priced accordingly, plus people converting the cameras to take other film. A Spectra is a camera you buy with the understanding that the next pack is a gamble.
This copy
The listing says unused, never loaded, never fired, and untested. The case is the original hard-shell presentation case with felt lining, with scuffing on the case and the body from storage. The counter reads 10. I did not load it, because I have no film to load it with, and loading expired film into an unused camera tells you about the film.
That is the honest limit on an item like this. Unused is a condition. Untested is a status. Both are true at once, and neither one means it works. I do not know if the sonar fires, if the shutter opens, or if the rollers turn, and anyone who tells you they know without a pack in hand is guessing.
The comp. I found no clean sold price for an Onyx with case. One active listing on eBay for a standard Spectra AF with its box and manual, asking $18 plus $8 shipping, from a page last updated in January 2024. A standard body is not a clear body, and an ask is not a sale. So $40 is a position, not a quote. It is the price of the clear shell, the case, and the envelope, with no promise about the insides.
If you want a Spectra to shoot, buy one that has been loaded and fired recently, and ask for a photo of a print. If you want the Onyx because you can see the circuit board through the plastic, this one is unused and sitting in its case. Those are two different buyers, and both are fine.
The case still has the envelope in it. It never got mailed.