# Spot/flare/dirt in the viewfinder?!?



## DaveSpruce (Oct 14, 2008)

Hi guys.

Just noticed the other day that when I look in my viewfinder, especially against a monotone background like a blue sky or something, there's a dot right in the center of the viewfinder, almost looks like dirt/lens flare or something else. At first I thought it was something on the lens and cleanerd it, changed to another lens. Then I thought it was in the body somehow but had a look at the photos and there's nothing in the shots, which leads me to belive it's in/on the viewfinder somewhere?!?

Anyone know anything about this and how to get rid of it? Like I said it doesn't turn up in photos but it's still hell annoying to have in your field of vision all the time.

Btw, here's a couple of my shots as I just signed up for this forum I thought I'd give you a couple of samples. I mostly do sports photography, but also party and people shots. Currently based in Perth, Australia. Enjoy.

/Dave

http://photo.davespruce.se/munich
http://photo.davespruce.se/woodies
http://photo.davespruce.se/niche/

PS. Couldn't figure out how to attach photos in my post so you need to follow the links if you want to have a look D.S


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## MelodySoul (Oct 15, 2008)

Dust in the sensor?


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## DaveSpruce (Oct 15, 2008)

Cleaned the sensor several times with the built in sensor cleaner in my D300. Didn't help


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## tirediron (Oct 15, 2008)

You won't see sensor dust in the viewfinder; this sounds like a speck on the underside of the pentaprism. Remove the lens hold the camera so that the prism is above the lens opening, but on enough of an angle that anything falling off will fall out the lens mount and give it a few good puffs with a blower. If that doesn't work, try a lens brush.


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## DaveSpruce (Oct 15, 2008)

yeah I've tried that a couple of times too. Didn't help


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## fstopusa (Oct 15, 2008)

Have you tried unscrewing the rear viewfinder lens to see if it is in there? It has to be in the viewfinder, prism or on the mirror in order for you to see it. Sometimes the focusing screen is removable and can get dust on the top that is harder to get to. You have probably tried most of that, but I thought I would toss it out there.


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## DaveSpruce (Oct 15, 2008)

Unscrewing the rear viewfinder lens on a D300? How do you do that?


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## dEARlEADER (Oct 15, 2008)

tirediron said:


> You won't see sensor dust in the viewfinder; this sounds like a speck on the underside of the pentaprism. Remove the lens hold the camera so that the prism is above the lens opening, but on enough of an angle that anything falling off will fall out the lens mount and give it a few good puffs with a blower. If that doesn't work, try a lens brush.




+1... you have debris on the underside of the pentaprism.... no big deal... just blow it off..


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## DaveSpruce (Oct 15, 2008)

Have not with any measures been able to clean it off, I've blown in the body several times, check everything, even put the camera in bulb in blown. Nothing seams to work.. Might have to take it to a service centre and let them have a look at it.. It's just very odd that it's dead centre in the viewfinder but does not appear in photos...


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## dEARlEADER (Oct 15, 2008)

DaveSpruce said:


> Have not with any measures been able to clean it off, I've blown in the body several times, check everything, even put the camera in bulb in blown. Nothing seams to work.. Might have to take it to a service centre and let them have a look at it.. It's just very odd that it's dead centre in the viewfinder but does not appear in photos...




you can't see it in photos because the debris in on the pentaprism glass.... try harder...  do you know what area we are talking about? the glass piece above the lens mount inside the camera...

what kinda blower are you using?

what kinda lens brush are you using?


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## DaveSpruce (Oct 15, 2008)

Don't have a lens brush and have only tried blowing softly with my mouth as I don't have one of those ear thingies and don't wanna get saliva in there. So it's the glass piece in the "ceiling" of the body?


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## dEARlEADER (Oct 15, 2008)

DaveSpruce said:


> So it's the glass piece in the "ceiling" of the body?



yes....

and you should really buy yourself a giottos rocket blower... 

i found my D300 susceptible to debris in the same area for the first week or two after i bought it... i believe it to be lose material left over from construction... it happened three times within two weeks and hasn't happened since... i went away one weekend without the blower and removed the debris with a q-tip.... it worked...

ps- you can also customize the D300 to perform cleaning on each start up.... this is handy if you change lenses a lot... i think the default is for you to manually select cleaning option...


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## DaveSpruce (Oct 15, 2008)

Thanks for all the help mate, I'll see what I can do about it tomorrow, see if I can get one of those "giottos rocket blowers". Yeah my D300 is fairly new, had it about a month now. Yeah I know about the sensor cleaning, however feel it's a bit overkill to have it clean after every startup. I clean it on a regular basis manually instead.


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## fstopusa (Oct 15, 2008)

Well, it is probably not in the rear viewfinder lens and I am not sure if you can screw the lens off on a D300 or not. Probably the better phrase would be the eye cup cover lens that you look through. On my D2H I can unscrew the little glass (plastic?) lens cover that is there. I have to close down the eye cup shutter or screen before I can do this. Again, I do not know if this is available on a D300 and it is probably NOT where the dust is, but it is worth a shot if you can do it. It is probably on the bottom of the prism or has somehow gotten inside the prism.


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## DaveSpruce (Oct 16, 2008)

I got myself a lens brush and a blower today and tried both to get rid of the ding but neither helped, now there's black remnance of the lens brush of there too so it's a bir grainy.. I can now however see the ding on the pentaprism but it's impossible to get off. It's almost like an inprint in the pentaprism itself, it's fairly stuck there and sitting tight.. very strange I think I will have to hand it in to service to see what they have to say..


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## roadkill (Oct 20, 2008)

If it was on the sensor it would be in the shot


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## Garbz (Oct 21, 2008)

It could also be stuck between the focusing screen and the pentamirror/prism. This is fiddely to  get to. 

How bad is it? I would recommend just living with it. The service techs would charge you a lovely premium to clean it.


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## dEARlEADER (Oct 21, 2008)

DaveSpruce said:


> Yeah I know about the sensor cleaning, however feel it's a bit overkill to have it clean after every startup. I clean it on a regular basis manually instead.



why? this is what the feature is for..... I have it set to clean on start up.... you always start up after swapping lenses and this procedure can shake the dust before it settles.....


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