Help for my friend...she is very worried about her brand new camera and I do not know how to help...

[BES]

OK, so my girlfriend (no she is not blond), loved my Canon 40D and decided that she needed to get a newer version (50D is what she got) of it to take photos of her growing family. Frankly, P&S would do, but who am I to judge...I know what these suckers can do when kids are moving so I am not blaming her...


Here is what happened...she called me today all teary because she "decided to clean the mirror thingy" in the camera". I suspect it had something to do with one of her little curious darlings getting a hold of sweet new thing and perhaps doing something to it....I do not know. I do not know what it looked like "before this spring cleaning", but she claims she saw a spot through viewfinder and she took the lens off, took a Q-tip wrapped in glasses cleaning cloth (she showed me, it is one of those soft floppy ones ) and she went to town on these mirrors. Apparently she did not end there. She cleaned the one that was obvious, put lens on, and...Oh horror, saw more spots. So....thinking she had nothing to lose...she took the same cloth but this time she dipped it in rubbing alcohol and did some wiping, and went to the top element as well. She still sees spots but it got better. I can see them as well, they are not HUGE, but they are there. How the hell did they get there? Nobody claims responsibility for this, I wonder if she self-inflicted this by careless lens changing....


Only then she called me for advice....well, I have none, I have not done anything like that and have no advice...do you? I feel really bad for her, it is pretty new camera for her, although she purchased it used. Does she need to take it to the repair store or send it to Canon? Any advice? Help, she wants to borrow my camera for her trip and I fear this may be the end of friendship [:'(]

[Garrett-Grimsley]

She needs some compressed air. [H]

[BES]

where can she get it and how can she use it...and could she have done damage to the camera by what she has done? From what I understand, she did not touch sensor at all, she lockedup mirror, but freaked up, and shut off camera, Ufff, close call, I am glad she saw the light before she could do more damage....but could she have damaged anything by pressing lightly or not so lightly (I do not know, I have not witnessed the "surgery" myself) on the mirror or up above the mirror?

[EdN]

First things firsts, NEVER EVER use compressed air inside the mirror of an SLR. There is so much pressure from canned air that you can rip off the mirror. Secondly, even if you are able to control the pressure of the air stream, you can stain your mirror with the propellent if it condenses on the mirror.


Back to your original problem, do you know for sure your friend did not wipe the sensor? The sensor is that rectangular thing behind the mirror when it is in the 45 degree position. Wiping the sensor with anything other than special wipes with an alcohol based cleaner risks scratching the surface. This would be BAD news if your friend was able to do this.


If she only wiped the mirror and the underside of the pentaprism housing (the surface the mirror swings up when you activate the shutter), then this is not that big of a deal. The spots she sees are probably dust still stuck to the mirror or on the outside or inside surface of the pentaprism housing. In either case, the spots won't affect the image. I won't recommend your friend try to clean either the mirror again or the pentaprism surfaces. In case of the inside of the pentaprism, the dust may have gotten there before she purchased the camera used. My old 5D use to breathe in dust inside the housing and it was impossible to get rid of but it didn't affect the image.


Instead of using compressed air to blow out dust particles inside the SLR, use one of those hand held rubber "rocket" blowers. They are bulb shaped with a hole in one end and a nozzle in the other end. They fit in the palm of your hand and you squeeze hard to blow air out of the nozzle. A lot less potentially destructive on the mirror mechanism.


The spots she sees in the viewfinder are probably dust lodged against the mirror or pentaprism surfaces. To test if they may potentially be on the sensor surface, take some photos of a light colored surface and see if the spots come out on the same location as seen in the viewfinder. Likelihood is not but if spotsare seen, the 50D has a sensor cleaner. Activate by turning on and off the camera a few times to get rid of it. If it doesn't work or there are big splotches in the image (from her wiping the sensor surface), a call or visit to Canon may be warranted.


Lastly, but not least, I won't lend your 40D to your friend if I was you . . .

[BES]

Instead of using compressed air to blow out dust particles inside the SLR, use one of those hand held rubber "rocket" blowers. They are bulb shaped with a hole in one end and a nozzle in the other end. They fit in the palm of your hand and you squeeze hard to blow air out of the nozzle. A lot less potentially destructive on the mirror mechanism.



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OK, where can she get it, and can she do it herself or should she turn it in to professionals? Is there any chance she damaged anything already? I tested her camera and I cannot tell if it is doing anything weird. I do not know however how would I be able to tell. I saw the spots when I looked through her camera's viewfinder, we did not download images but I suspect there is no impact on images, we will try tomorrow. I just did not have time today to assist her with everything. She swears she did not touch sensor.


If she uses the blower and the spots are still there, what can she do to get that spotless viewfinder I have on my camera? And how the heck did it get dirty?


And lastly...I am not lending her MY camera, she would have to leave her youngest as a deposit [] and I do not even want him, LOL.

[EdN]

OK, where can she get it, and can she do it herself or should she turn it in to professionals? Is there any chance she damaged anything already? I tested her camera and I cannot tell if it is doing anything weird. I do not know however how would I be able to tell. I saw the spots when I looked through her camera's viewfinder, we did not download images but I suspect there is no impact on images, we will try tomorrow. I just did not have time today to assist her with everything. She swears she did not touch sensor.


If she uses the blower and the spots are still there, what can she do to get that spotless viewfinder I have on my camera? And how the heck did it get dirty?

Those hand held "rocket" blowers are available at most camera stores. Shouldn't have to pay more than around $6.00 for one. They are easy to use (not sure about your friend), just remove the lense, point the nozzle at the mirror and internals of the SLR, tip the SLR so the lens housing is open to the ground (for dust to fall away) and keep on squeezing the bulb. Repeat as often as you want, redirect the nozzle to the pentaprism surface, and keep blowing until you are happy.


If your friend *did not* touch the sensor, that's 90% of your worries gone. If you can take shots with the camera and the shutter works properly and mirror retracts, most of your remaining 10% is also gone. To be sure, you need to take shots, download them, and look throughout the image at 100% to check for artifacts, defects, and other problems.


And how the dust got there? You have electronic equipment that can generate static. Static attracts dust. Your camera is new so it came out of a clean room during assembly. Hers you say was used so whoever put on the original mileage could have gotten dust inside through taking too much time to change lenses, being careless changing lenses in dusty or dryenvironments, etc.

[BES]

OK, where can she get it, and can she do it herself or should she turn it in to professionals? Is there any chance she damaged anything already? I tested her camera and I cannot tell if it is doing anything weird. I do not know however how would I be able to tell. I saw the spots when I looked through her camera's viewfinder, we did not download images but I suspect there is no impact on images, we will try tomorrow. I just did not have time today to assist her with everything. She swears she did not touch sensor.


If she uses the blower and the spots are still there, what can she do to get that spotless viewfinder I have on my camera? And how the heck did it get dirty?

Those hand held "rocket" blowers are available at most camera stores. Shouldn't have to pay more than around $6.00 for one. They are easy to use (not sure about your friend), just remove the lense, point the nozzle at the mirror and internals of the SLR, tip the SLR so the lens housing is open to the ground (for dust to fall away) and keep on squeezing the bulb. Repeat as often as you want, redirect the nozzle to the pentaprism surface, and keep blowing until you are happy.


If your friend *did not* touch the sensor, that's 90% of your worries gone. If you can take shots with the camera and the shutter works properly and mirror retracts, most of your remaining 10% is also gone. To be sure, you need to take shots, download them, and look throughout the image at 100% to check for artifacts, defects, and other problems.


And how the dust got there? You have electronic equipment that can generate static. Static attracts dust. Your camera is new so it came out of a clean room during assembly. Hers you say was used so whoever put on the original mileage could have gotten dust inside through taking too much time to change lenses, being careless changing lenses in dusty or dryenvironments, etc.
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Ed


Thanks, great explanation. I am pretty sure she did not touch sensor, she is pretty freaked out and by now she would have told me. I am not sure if anyone else (kids) didn't...but I guess that would be a hard one for them to figure out. She told me she moved the mode to manual cleaning, mirror locked up, she saw sensor and froze. Good. But that happened after she went to town on that mirrow and pentaprism, I suppose. From what I learned, she was quite gentle with mirror but used rubbing alcohol, but was not as delicate on the other one...not sure, I have not seen the action so for her sake I hope she is remembering it correctly. I noticed things working well, I took few pics and they showed OK on the LCD, but we did not download anything. I will do what you suggested and look with her tomorrow at images on monitor once downloaded. Thanks so much for your help.

[ShutterbugJohan]

I'd recommend the Giottos Rocket Air Blower. It is what I use, and have never had problems. (http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Giottos-Rocket-Air-Blower-Review.aspx)

[BES]

I'd recommend the Giottos Rocket Air Blower. It is what I use, and have never had problems. ([url="http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Giottos-Rocket-Air-Blower-Review.aspx]http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Giottos-Rocket-Air-Blower-Review.aspx[/url])
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Great tool, I may get one for myself...if the " blowing operation" on her camera proves successful. I am more leery of touching anything inside on my own. Cleaning included, but I guess, it is bound to happen with frequent lens changes, etc....one day I may find MY camera with some kind of spots....oh, please, no, let this not happen...ever[]

[BES]

So we downloaded some pictures, they look OK to me and camera seem to work fine, all pictures taken after the ablution with alcohol seem fine, I cannot tell if there is any spots on images even with 100% magnification, but then again, everything looks huge at that size....


We did not use blower yet as stores are closed, so I can see she may have to put up with spotty viewfinder for a bit, but it does not seem to affect the quality of pictures. She is now forbidden from touching anything inside the camera, and I think she learned her lesson. Her husband said he is not buying her another camera, no way, LOL. I just wonder if I could ask for her lens if she buggers her camera, she got 24-70mm and I am pining for that one []


It would be a nice complement to my 70-200.


I think she may have been lucky this time. Thank you guys for advice, as always, you are the best!