Dust visible through viewfinder.

soupdragon

soupdragon

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I have a Leica R8 and there is a lot of dust visible in the viewfinder.
I'm fairly sure it's on the viewing screen but, having removed it, blower brushed it and replaced it still looks bad.
I'm wondering if putting it in the dishwasher would do it any harm? Just the screen not the camera.

Any advice, cleaning fluids, detergent water, sponge?
 
Have you blower'ed off the mirror?
 
Box Brownie said:
Have you blower'ed off the mirror?
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To some extent but it looks very clean.
I believe the dust to be on the focusing screen or on the face of the pentaprism.

First surface mirrors are very delicate and I'd rather not touch that.
 
Dust visble in the optical path
On the mirror
On the 'focus' screen
On the pentraprism face
Behind the eyepiece

The most delicate parts are the mirror, only ever use a blower bulb and avoid touching it (I was not suggesting that you use the brush on your blower ~ IMO a blower brush is only for lenses....do get yourself a Giotto Rocket Blower ;). The other one if the screen, they are made of plastic and don't take kindly to mishandling.

If you cannot shift it, then choices are live with it or send it away for pro clean?
 
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Be careful, and no, not the dishwasher, that sounds brutal! Think of the screen as a lens for cleaning purposes. It's plastic ... and if it has minute fresnel grooves on one side, it's hard to clean them out - just a thought there is that if you had a carbon fibre brush ...

If dry cleaning doesn't work, I'd be getting out the lens / sensor fluid ..
 
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I have a spare grid screen but I struggle without the split screen for critical work.
Plus it's an absolute pain in the backside to get the things in and out.

Do you think a fairy liquid solution would do any harm?
 
I guess you could temporarily install the grid screen to be absolutely sure the dust is on the other screen rather than elsewhere.

I think most modern screens are plastic rather than ground glass, and very easily damaged. I'd be scared to try DIY wet cleaning, especially with domestic detergents, and I definitely wouldn't use the dishwasher. It's very easy to make things worse rather than better, and I would snap up one of those spare screens before experimenting in case it all went pear-shaped. At worst, you could ruin the screen completely. The usual advice about simply ignoring screen dust you can't easily blow away is probably correct.
 
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soupdragon said:
Do you think a fairy liquid solution would do any harm?
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Just might leave streaks - so would need a good rinse. Remember any marks you leave on the screen will be magnified in the VF.
 
With thanks I take onboard every ones comments.
The dust/dirt is so bad I fail to see how I could make it much worse.

Perhaps I'll do a short video on how not to clean a plastic focusing screen. :banghead:
 
Well, I removed the screen and dumped it in a warm weak solution of fairy liquid.
I went over it gently with a 1" paint brush whilst submerged for about a minute.
Rinsed it with clean water and immediately dumped it in neat IPA.
I dried it with a lint free cloth and refitted it.

It is very much cleaner and brighter now with no extra signs of damage. All in all, a success I feel.
 
That was a concern I had but I live in a hard water area and calcite smears are a big problem.
It's a pain processing film as well. Even though I use distilled water for processing solutions the wash has to be done with tap water.
 
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