dirty viewfinder

[NYY]

i have a canon 300d and i noticed a small speck of dust in my viewfinder that i couldnt get out simply by wiping the eyepiece. it isnt in my pictures, so i know its not on the sensor, but when i tried cleaning the mirrors, i made things worse (a lot worse). what can i use to clean the mirrors without putting more dust on them.?

 

[NYY]

nevermind, my dad gave me a special cloth that's used for cleaning sunglasses' lenses and it worked fine

 

[markc]

Be very, very careful when trying to clean a mirror!

Best not to touch it at all. If you must try something, use one of those hand bulbs and use a very gentle puff of air. Even compressed air can be too much. It's very easy to goof them up.

 

[NYY]

what can happen if not too careful?

 

[markc]

You can knock the mirror out of allignment and it won't flip correctly or won't show the correct view. I haven't done it myself, thankfully.

 

[NYY]

Alright, thanks for the advice.

 

[kemplefan]

i never touch the inards of my camera i only clean with air, and today i was shooting and my veiw finder was dirty, i though it was my lense, i cleaned the lens three times before i figured that it was the veiw finder

 

[Iron Flatline]

The big difference about the in-camera mirror and what you know as a mirror from home is that the one at home is mirrored behind a layer of glass. The one in the camera actually has the mirror right on top - otherwise it would be too heavy, and the focal differences would have to be calculated differently. Anyway, the one inside the camera is hyper sensitive - as markc says: because of aligment and other mechanical issues, but also because if you touch it, getting your finger grease off is MUCH harder.