Cheesy Blue Corrosion!

May 8, 2008 1:25 PM

How to remove minor battery corrosion from the positive end of the battery compartment on my Polaroid Land Camera.

I found a Polaroid Land Camera for sale on the street and bought it after assurances from the dude that he'd tested it and it was in working condition. When I got it home I looked at the battery and this blue, cheese smelling corrosion had leaked from the battery and caked into the positive node of the compartment. I can't get a connection with the new battery do to the corrosion. It's not a lot, but it's blocking the connection. I tried using a toothpick, a toothbrush and a nail file to scrape the blue stuff out, but no dice. Is there a way to clean this stuff easily? Or alternatively, how do I buy a replacement positive node?

posted by spicynuts to technology (10 comments total)

Before you put too much effort into it, are you sure you can get film for that camera? I believe Polaroid is stopping producing film entirely. *sobs bitterly even though I could never afford it anyway*
posted by sully75 at 1:29 PM on May 8, 2008

I had battery corrosion in a calculator once and alcohol on a q-tip cleared it up. It was white though, not blue so I don't know if that's the same thing you have.
posted by puke & cry at 1:34 PM on May 8, 2008

We used to use a pencil eraser when I worked in a camera shop.
posted by loiseau at 1:39 PM on May 8, 2008

A little baking soda and water will neutralize the corroded material. It can be scraped off with an emery board or sand paper. DeOxit can also help dissolve the corrosion and protect against future rust at this now partially damaged site.
posted by caddis at 1:51 PM on May 8, 2008

Polaroid integral film (the kind that you can watch develop) has a battery in the filmpack itself. The peel-apart film does not. so it sounds like you have the latter. Fuji makes, and will continue to make, film that fits it. Probably.

It sounds like you have maybe a 230 or a 3-something, with that weird battery with the snaps on either end. If so, it might be worth your while to replace those battery leads with a enclosure for two AA batteries, which is the same juice in a different shape. You could do the whole thing for $5 in an hour.
posted by dirtdirt at 2:46 PM on May 8, 2008

You might try wrapping some steel wool around a pencil/toothpick/etc. and then vigorous rubbing.

As for spare parts, your best bet would be to get a non-working identical model at a thrift store, eBay, etc. and cannibalize it.
posted by OlderThanTOS at 2:48 PM on May 8, 2008

You don't mention what model you have, but there's some information about various Polaroid battery conversions over here.
posted by slowfasthazel at 3:00 PM on May 8, 2008

Baking soda (1/4) and white vinegar (3/4) mixture. Saturate a Q-tip and gently clean the contact. This won't work if the contact is heavily corroded.
posted by Mblue at 4:17 PM on May 8, 2008

Before you put too much effort into it, are you sure you can get film for that camera? I believe Polaroid is stopping producing film entirely. *sobs bitterly even though I could never afford it anyway*

The camera is a 320. Fuji makes instant film for it. As far as I can tell they have no plans to stop. The Fuji is actually better than Polaroid for color, I feel - better saturation.

You could do the whole thing for $5 in an hour.

This sounds like a good idea. The stupid 3 volt battery is 14 dollars.

Thanks everyone!
posted by spicynuts at 6:07 AM on May 9, 2008

Here's a walkthrough on converting that type of camera to take 3V photo lithium cells.
posted by zsazsa at 11:29 PM on May 12, 2008