# Covering eyepiece for long exposures



## SHUTTERHIVE (Aug 9, 2016)

I love taking long exposure shots, It is by far my favourite thing to do especially when I am at the beach. Most people will tell you that you need to cover the eyepiece when taking a long exposure on a DSLR. I personally have never really bothered and have never noticed any fogging or light leaking because of it. What do others think? Do we really need to cover our eyepiece when shooting long exposures on a DSLR?


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## HughGuessWho (Aug 9, 2016)

Take a long exposure shot in a low light situation and then come back and tell us that you didn't notice anything. Mid-day....not a huge issue, nighttime...and an open viewfinder may very well trash you capture. You will have a bright, funky band across the bottom third of your picture.


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## SHUTTERHIVE (Aug 9, 2016)

HughGuessWho said:


> Take a long exposure shot in a low light situation and then come back and tell us that you didn't notice anything. Mid-day....not a huge issue, nighttime...and an open viewfinder may very well trash you capture. You will have a bright, funky band across the bottom third of your picture.



I have taken plenty of low light long exposures and never had an issue


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## astroNikon (Aug 9, 2016)

longer exposure to get the water movement taken during morning when light was behind the camera going into the viewfinder.

Notice any purple haze ?


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## SHUTTERHIVE (Aug 9, 2016)

Wow, I have never seen this with digital photography, this shot was a 10 minute exposure with the sun coming up behind me without covering the eyepiece...


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## astroNikon (Aug 9, 2016)

In the old days camera had a little switch next to the viewfinder to close a shutter (found on D700, D8x0 and above, D300/500, etc).

When I got my d7000 (and d600, d750) I went out early one morning to take a bunch of pictures of moving water at various places.  And most of my images were junk due to light coming in the viewfinder as shown above.   I then recalled about the viewfinder shutter> I simply use the strap to cover the viewfinder to resolve it mostly.


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## EIngerson (Aug 9, 2016)

@astroNikon  Looks more like glare from the side to me.


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## SHUTTERHIVE (Aug 9, 2016)

And another...


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## astroNikon (Aug 9, 2016)

I wonder if Canon closes out the viewfinder area vs Nikon during a longer exposure ?

You can test it by just shooting a flashlight into the viewfinder briefly during a short test.


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## astroNikon (Aug 9, 2016)

EIngerson said:


> @astroNikon  Looks more like glare from the side to me.


I had a ton of images like that.  As soon as I covered the viewfinder I was fine.

I always used a remote so I was never behind the camera to block any light going into the viewfinder.


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## waday (Aug 9, 2016)

astroNikon said:


> Notice any purple haze ?


Not a bit? Are we looking at the same picture?


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## SHUTTERHIVE (Aug 9, 2016)

astroNikon said:


> I wonder if Canon closes out the viewfinder area vs Nikon during a longer exposure ?
> 
> You can test it by just shooting a flashlight into the viewfinder briefly during a short test.



I don't think they do considering they still have a cover on the neck strap provided


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## KmH (Aug 9, 2016)

Don't Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking

The main mirror of a DSLR has to be up against the bottom of the viewfinder to make a photo or to shoot video. The main mirror is not designed to form a light tight seal with the bottom of the viewfinder. Consequently, light can get into the mirror box area of the camera that is in front on the image sensor adding light to a long exposure.

Nikon includes a viewfinder cover (DK-5) with every new DSLR camera Nikon sells.
It's small and many people have no idea what the DK-5 is for, and/or promtly lose the DK-5.
I don't know if Canon provides anything like the DK-5.

The bottom line is, if you _don't_ cover the viewfinder during a long exposure you could get some unwanted light during the exposure from the viewfinder. YMMV


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## astroNikon (Aug 9, 2016)

KmH said:


> Don't Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking


I thought about buying that book.
But I didn't because I didn't think I needed it.
Did I make a mistake ?


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## Dave442 (Aug 9, 2016)

I don't have the eyepiece covers. I just put my thick micro-fiber towel over the back.


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## dennybeall (Aug 9, 2016)

Like so many things this is camera body specific.


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## KmH (Aug 9, 2016)

astroNikon said:


> KmH said:
> 
> 
> > Don't Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking
> ...


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## TCampbell (Aug 15, 2016)

I think this depends on the camera.  A while back I read an article where they put this to the test.

As I recall the test, they covered the entire camera (lens and viewfinder) and took a long exposure to ensure that the frame was "black" (with maybe some sensor noise).  They repeated with only the viewfinder open and a bright light shining into it.

It turns out, on the camera they tested, there was no difference noticed between the viewfinder port covered vs. uncovered.

While the test camera seemed to seal off any light leaks rather well, clearly (and historically) it has always been very important -- and probably still is important on many models, just not on every model.


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## john.margetts (Aug 15, 2016)

According to the manual of my Canon DSLR, the reason for covering the eyepiece is to stop light coming in through that route from upsetting the light meter, rather than fogging the image.


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