Spec in Viewfinder! :-/

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MLJGTI

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Mark
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Hi all,

I think this may actually be my first post! Apologies if its in the wrong Topic.

I've got this really annoying spec in the bottom right quadrant in my viewfinder (Canon 5D mkIII). I've rule out the following to the best of my ability :-

1) Lens' (Removed)
2) Actual viewfinder outside glass
3) Mirror
4) The flat surface above the mirror (Pentaprism?)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! :-)

Cheers

Mark
 
i'm afraid specks of dust in the viewfinder are unfortunately a fact of life with an SLR camera. Every DSLR i've ever had has accumulated one or two over time.

Sometimes a quick blast with the rocket blower will clear it, sometimes it's on the underside of the focussing screen - and removing it is either impossible or more trouble than it's worth and risks getting in more gunk.

my advice would be to just live with it. it won't affect your shots.
 
I've got the same problem with my 5D3, Dont whatever you do try and wipe it like i did! just makes it worse, i then had to take the focussing screen out to get it back to an acceptable standard, its still not perfect, and as of yesterday ive got another whacking great big spec on it aswell! Drives me crazy because i start to look at the spec more than the subject i'm shooting
 
Hi Chaps,

Thanks for the responses...not quite what I was hoping for though! :-)

Bit worried about the wiping comment now too as I did try and wipe various bits with a microfibre cloth :-/

Really annoying though as I never had anything like that and my 550D. Pay 2 grand for a camera and you wouldn't expect this sort of thing! :-)

Cheers

Mark
 
MLJGTI said:
Bit worried about the wiping comment now too as I did try and wipe various bits with a microfibre cloth :-/
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I dont think i did any damage to the screen, just the fibres off the cloth stuck to it aswell, so instead of having one large spec of dust, i have several tiny specs of dust :bang:

9 times of 10 i cant see those now, but in just the right light or against the right surface i can see them
 
Ah right...haha! Not good.

I just know it's going to bug the hell out of me! :-/

I suppose there is always the warranty...I've only had the camera 2 or 3 months.
 
MLJGTI said:
Really annoying though as I never had anything like that and my 550D. Pay 2 grand for a camera and you wouldn't expect this sort of thing! :-)
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Thats like saying that if you buy a £50,000 luxury car instead of a £5000 runaround the luxury car should never breakdown because you paid a lot for it and have expectations higher than can ever be supplied.

Ultimately dust will find its way into the smallest of gaps. If you don't look at it to much you soon forget it is there, and as others have said it won't affect your shots.
 
stupar said:
Thats like saying that if you buy a £50,000 luxury car instead of a £5000 runaround the luxury car should never breakdown because you paid a lot for it and have expectations higher than can ever be supplied.
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Well I didn't expect it to never ever break down, but owning it for 2 months and getting the issue when I've never had it on my 18 month old quarter of the price cheaper camera!...that's not cool ;)
 
MLJGTI said:
Well I didn't expect it to never ever break down, but owning it for 2 months and getting the issue when I've never had it on my 18 month old quarter of the price cheaper camera!...that's not cool ;)
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One reason is that the sensor is considerably larger than your previous body - Full frame bodies have more 'issues' with dust.
 
grotty said:
One reason is that the sensor is considerably larger than your previous body - Full frame bodies have more 'issues' with dust.
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There's two issues here, sensor dust and dust/debris in the optical path. Anything on the sensor shows in images and anything in the optical path is just an annoyance. I wouldn't expect a full frame camera to be significantly worse than an APS-C camera for crap in the optical path. All of my APS-C cameras (all Canon) have suffered from debris in the optical path and my curret 5D is just the same.

As others have said, it's just par for the course and I don't know what the shop/Canon would say if you took it back under warranty. They may clean it as a good will gesture... and it may come back worse than before.

My advice would be to try and ignore it, use a rocket blower if you must, clean the mirror and focus screen if you must and get it professionally cleaned if it gets simply too bad to live with but the chances are that it will not get that bad during the life of the camera.
 
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woof woof said:
There's two issues here, sensor dust and dust/debris in the optical path. Anything on the sensor shows in images and anything in the optical path is just an annoyance. I wouldn't expect a full frame camera to be significantly worse than an APS-C camera for crap in the optical path. All of my APS-C cameras (all Canon) have suffered from debris in the optical path and my curret 5D is just the same.

As others have said, it's just par for the course and I don't know what the shop/Canon would say if you took it back under warranty. They may clean it as a good will gesture... and it may come back worse than before.

My advice would be to try and ignore it, use a rocket blower if you must, clean the mirror and focus screen if you must and get it professionally cleaned if it gets simply too bad to live with but the chances are that it will not get that bad during the life of the camera.
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Ok - many thanks for all the advice :)
 
The spec has gone! :D

Was having a tinker and noticed that the spec started shifting on shutter release. High speed continous shooting and managed to shift it out of the way.

It'll probably come back but I'm happy for the time being :)
 
MLJGTI said:
Well I didn't expect it to never ever break down, but owning it for 2 months and getting the issue when I've never had it on my 18 month old quarter of the price cheaper camera!...that's not cool ;)
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But there's the crux, you see a 'issue' where none exists.

It's like expecting your £50,000 car not to get dirty, or being upset that all the Jaguars on your hubcaps don't line up when you park. Dust happens, it doesn't stop your camera performing the function you bought it for.
 
Haha! Very funny guys! I'll check it out again tonight ;-)

Anywho...what's with this car analogy thing? I'm not expecting it to never break or get dirty! My only comparison is with my cheaper 550D and I've never had any specs of dust in the viewfinder with that! :)

(Maybe I was just lucky I suppose)
 
MLJGTI said:
My only comparison is with my cheaper 550D and I've never had any specs of dust in the viewfinder with that! :)

(Maybe I was just lucky I suppose)
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That also has a smaller optical path, a smaller mirror unit, a smaller focusing screen, a smaller prism - all of which means less specks are likely to end up in the viewfinder (and why my medium format camera has quite a few specks in the viewing area!).
 
freecom2 said:
That also has a smaller optical path, a smaller mirror unit, a smaller focusing screen, a smaller prism - all of which means less specks are likely to end up in the viewfinder (and why my medium format camera has quite a few specks in the viewing area!).
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Fair point and duly noted! :)
 
I had an annoying speck in my old 5D and made the fatal mistake of "cleaning it with a cloth" - it scratched the cr*p out of the focusing screen and I had to replace the focussing screen. I learned that lesson. Put up with the specks, blow at them if you can BUT do not try to rub them away!
 
Phil Young said:
I had dust in my viewfinder. Quick wipe of the focusing screen under the mirror with my trusty make up brush removed it.
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Each to their own. :)
 
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