Should I cover the eye piece?

250Gimp

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I was wondering if I should cover the eyepiece of my camera when I don't have my eye to it, such as when I am taking timed shots, or using mirror lock up? It is a pain to put the little cover on and off to recompose each shot.

I figured some of the local experts could help me with this question. :sexywink:

Thanks
 
with long exposure....for sure it is a good idea to cover it up.....but for shorter exposures such as 1/60......i also like to know if it makes a difference
 
I know that my Canon camera strap comes with a little eye-piece cover...but I don't think I've ever actually used it.

Light can get into the camera though the viewfinder...and that light could cause problems like a loss of contrast etc. Normally, I probably wouldn't think of it...but if it's really bright or if there is direct sun light coming from behind the camera...and it's on a tripod (I'm not looking though it)...then I would probably just cover it with my hand or hat, without touching it. If it was a fairly long exposure...then that's when the cover would come in handy.
 
If it's light out or light in the room and you are taking special care with the exposure or are using Lots of studio flash (or so I'm told) -yes. The light can go either way to the mirror and effect the meter. mike
 
Even though the manual of my D200 says I should do this I have never done it. Even when I took a 25second exposure with the cable release, realising while I was taking it that a streetlight was shining directly into the viewfinder there was nothing wrong with the image. No exposure, contrast, or other problems.
 
I have in fact used the eye cover on my 20D strap. I was taking some image on a red lit bridge. I was shooting over towards another bridge lit blue. When I got home all my images had red flare showing in the water. My exposures were between 10 and 30 seconds long.

I had to use photoshop to get rid of all the flare circles but I quickly found out that it was caused by red light coming through the eye peice and into the lens.

Any lighting that is close by in line with the camera eyepeice is a cause for concern, especially for longer exposures. For shorter I don't think I'd be too worried. You may see some flare you can't explain though and this may be the reason!!

Sometimes putting the cover on is a pain and I do as Mike does. Cover with your hand without touching the camera.

Cheers
JD
 
I have in fact used the eye cover on my 20D strap. I was taking some image on a red lit bridge. I was shooting over towards another bridge lit blue. When I got home all my images had red flare showing in the water. My exposures were between 10 and 30 seconds long.

I had to use photoshop to get rid of all the flare circles but I quickly found out that it was caused by red light coming through the eye peice and into the lens.

Any lighting that is close by in line with the camera eyepeice is a cause for concern, especially for longer exposures. For shorter I don't think I'd be too worried. You may see some flare you can't explain though and this may be the reason!!

Sometimes putting the cover on is a pain and I do as Mike does. Cover with your hand without touching the camera.

Cheers
JD

are you sure that color bleed wouldn't have been caused simply from shooting from a location that is lit a different color? I wonder how much the eye piece would help your problem. If you have done this, comparison photos would be excellent!

I never bother with the viewfinder cover.
 
Used the hood on my Tamron 17-35 so that I wasn't getting styray light (but you may be right with this). It's not the best of hoods.
 
I have never felt the need to cover the viewfinder except when the exposure was long (minutes at least), and as far as I can tell it's never affected my exposures, film or digital. I understand some may want to err on the side of caution but this is the first time I've heard it suggested for anything faster than a second. In other words, no I really don't think it's necessary, but then again I don't know about your camera so don't sue me if you take my advice and lose the shot of the century ;)
 
Thanks for the answers everyone. Most of the shots I will be doing are short exposure, so i guess I will just decide based on the light in the area I am shooting.

Cheers
 
I know that my Canon camera strap comes with a little eye-piece cover...but I don't think I've ever actually used it.

I lost that pretty quickly. I now keep a bit of black electrical tape in the camera bag. My F4s has a lever in the vf to close it. Got in the habit of doing that when on a tripod as the meter is affected by light through the vf, at least on the F4s it is.
 
And here all this time I thought it was there to protect the viewfiner when you're not using the camera. I had no idea light could get in through there. Of course I've never put an ounce of thought into it but it makes sense now.

I believe i still have the one on the strap but I lost the little cushion years ago!
 
I had no idea it was even remotely possible for light to get in throught the viewfinder. Thanks for the info.
I also thought it was just a protective thing.
 
Another thought when the camera flips its mirror up no more harm can be done. One could simply look through the eyepiece or just shade it when depressing the (hopefully) remote cable release for the long exposure.
 

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