Cleaning 7D & Lenses

[prodigy2k7]

So today im doing a good cleaning of all my lenses and my 7D. Looking to find any dust/dirt on my lenses or on my 7D's mirror/viewfinder etc etc... So I look into my 7D and find that the viewfinder is *VERY* dark. I'm like holy crap what did I break???
I eventually figured it out (i think, but didn't test it yet), can anyone guess what i did/broke etc?

 

[Derrel]

Did the thingamajig come loose from the dealy-bob while you were mucking around???

 

[prodigy2k7]

Did the thingamajig come loose from the dealy-bob while you were mucking around???

LOL, actually I think I figured it out right away, from a comment you made about the 7D and the viewfinder system awhile back. HINT HINT

 

[Derrel]

Did you pull the battery and forget to put it back into the camera??? The 7D has the new-fangled transmissive display system, which depends on juice from the battery to make the finder bright. (There are other cameras that need power to bring the viewfinder image up to full brightness as well.)

 

[prodigy2k7]

Did you pull the battery and forget to put it back into the camera??? The 7D has the new-fangled transmissive display system, which depends on juice from the battery to make the finder bright. (There are other cameras that need power to bring the viewfinder image up to full brightness as well.)

Yes! I was charging the battery at the time. I didn't think about this and it was the first time I've seen the viewfinder this dark. I'd be freaking out right now if I didn't have Derrel or TPF to teach me about that lol.

 

[Overread]

I freaked out about that when I first got my 7D - the viewfinder looked totally wrong without the battery in (whist I was waiting for it to charge). At first I couldn't understand it - was my room really that dark - was the diopter broken in the camera - were my eyes bust! It's a shock the first time indeed.

 

[Derrel]

The same thing happened to me with my old Fuji S2 Pro back in 2003...I was charging the batteries and looked" through the camera and it was like a coal mine in there!!!!! I was like, "WTH???? My camera's busted!@!!@ ACK!!!!"

 

[Crollo]

Haha I got the same reaction from my E10, it actually stops down the aperture to the smallest value until you turn it on so it was very confusing.

 

[Netskimmer]

Had a similar experience with my D7000...

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/photography-beginners-forum/245342-my-d7000-came-today-yay-just-one-concern.html