# Really dirty lens/mirror. Cleaning and Editing.



## Hedgeclipper (Aug 30, 2009)

So my mom is running her iron man today and I'm dong the pictures with my FM2. Unfortunately, my zoom lens is really dusty (maybe inside?) and the mirror itself has gotten a bit dusty after a stupid experience in a concert. WHat should I do to fix this in the meanwhile as I have only a few hours before my next opportunity to take some photos and I don't have access to any professional cleaning stuff. The camera stores aren't open yet, either. Also, some of my photos already have some dust on them. I got as uch as I could out, but does anyone know about editing out dust specs in photoshop? What should I do?
-any help would be greatly appreciated
-thx!


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## Derrel (Aug 30, 2009)

DO NOT CLEAN THE MIRROR! I'll repeat that: do NOT clean the mirror. The mirror in an old FM2 will probably be dirty. Trust me when I tell you, do not clean the mirror! it does not need to be all that clean to work perfectly well.

DO not worry too much about the lens either--dust inside it will not hurt.

Clean the lens front and rear elements with a clean T-shirt and some huffs of air from your mouth....put the lens back on and go shoot the pics.

You might want to buy a couple of EP-76 or SR-44 type 1.5 volt batteries for the FM2's light meter....they go into the baseplate battery well. Ue a nickle to open the well.


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## Hedgeclipper (Aug 30, 2009)

Derrel said:


> DO NOT CLEAN THE MIRROR! I'll repeat that: do NOT clean the mirror. The mirror in an old FM2 will probably be dirty. Trust me when I tell you, do not clean the mirror! it does not need to be all that clean to work perfectly well.
> 
> DO not worry too much about the lens either--dust inside it will not hurt.
> 
> ...



Yeah. I recently replaced the batteries. I was confused for so long as to why 1/4 of my rolls worked until I realised that the one that worked was taken all with 250 and the others with around 500. THe batteries that control the governer for the shutter speed were completely dead, so only 250 worked... I just replaced them. I know not to clean it, but I made the mistake of doing it once, now its got some dust specs. Is it possible that there is dust on the inside of the lens? My other lenses all seem fine, but my zoom lens looks awful and it looks pretty clean from the outside. As I want to keep quite a few pictures taken with the zoom lens, what should I do once they are developped/digital?


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## KmH (Aug 30, 2009)

I'd have to say, use a blower and brush before you start wipping on the lens. You need to get the dust off first so it doesn't scratch the lens/coatings.


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## Hedgeclipper (Aug 30, 2009)

Well. I'll do all this as soon as I can get to a camera store (don't have all my stuff with me, far from home), but does anyone know about editing this stuff out? Just small specks  of dust really, but a lot of the pictures that have it may be ones I want to keep.


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## icassell (Aug 30, 2009)

Stuff on the mirror is not going to wind up on your image -- the mirror flips up out of the film plane when you expose.


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## Hedgeclipper (Aug 30, 2009)

Well I don't know what anything will look like yet, but it could just be stuff on the viewfinder. It looks pretty bad through the viewfinder, but the lens is quite clean. SO what could be so dusty?


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## icassell (Aug 30, 2009)

If the mirror were very dirty, you would see that in the viewfinder, but not on the final image.


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## Hedgeclipper (Aug 30, 2009)

That's what I wanted to know. Thanks!


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## KmH (Aug 30, 2009)

Did you look at the focusing screen?


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## fokker (Aug 30, 2009)

Derrel said:


> DO NOT CLEAN THE MIRROR! I'll repeat that: do NOT clean the mirror. The mirror in an old FM2 will probably be dirty. Trust me when I tell you, do not clean the mirror! it does not need to be all that clean to work perfectly well.
> 
> DO not worry too much about the lens either--dust inside it will not hurt.
> 
> ...


 
Out of interest, why is it so bad to clean the mirror?


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## dhilberg (Aug 30, 2009)

fokker said:


> Derrel said:
> 
> 
> > DO NOT CLEAN THE MIRROR! I'll repeat that: do NOT clean the mirror. The mirror in an old FM2 will probably be dirty. Trust me when I tell you, do not clean the mirror! it does not need to be all that clean to work perfectly well.
> ...



Here's a link that explains why better than I can:

Cleaning an SLR Mirror - Photography QnA at BetterPhoto.com


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