Please Help ! Accidentally touched mirror

[chrismanacop]

Well first let me start off by saying I had dust bunnies so I was using a Hurricane Blower to blow the dust off. I accidentally smudged the Mirror. I know it was a dumb move. Will this affect my camera negatively ? Can I clean this off ? I took some pictures and appears to not have affected anything. Please Help !
--

 

[mironv]

--If you have lens cleaning fluid than you can use q-tip with this and clean up don worry it just a mirror.Just don't use to wet q-tip.
Mironv



http://mironv.smugmug.com/

 

[dad_of_four]

You may notice the smudge in the viewfinder, but the mirror flips up and out of the way when the picture is taken.
--
Warm regards,
Dad-of-four
Looking for a Smugmug account?
Enter code kHmP122izH9gg in the Referred by field to save $5.

 

[chrismanacop]

i dont have any lense cleaning fluid ? do i just go to the store and get some ? do i dip the q-tip on the lense fluid and on to the mirror ? sorry, i'm new at this.
--

 

[ovrebekk]

It doesnt affect your pictures at all, so unless it looks bad in the viewfinder i wouldnt worry.

 

[gvhughes]

Don't do anything!!

As far as I know, it's a front-surface mirror.

This means the reflective coating is on the surface and can be damaged very easily.

My advice is to simply do nothing.

If you think you must do something, call Nikon service first.

It is just possible that today's SLR mirrors are back-coated or that the surfaces are coated to protect them from abrassion, but I doubt it.

Call Nikon service first and let us know what they say.

What, incidently, does it say in your manual? Isn't there a picture of the mirror with a finger and a big cross meaning don't touch?
--
geoffrey

 

[Fid]

It's funny, I took my camera into a Nikon service center the other day as my D70 was doing some funny things. The guy behind the desk took off the lens and just lifted up the mirror with his fingers (The camera was off).

He played a little more with it, and eventually said it all looked fine, if I wanted to look into it further, he would have to send it away.

Anyhow, after I got it home I had a quick look at the mirror (Because i was quite shocked at the way he just lifted it up) and found there was a small finger print left on the mirror. It was small though so I have just left it alone.

Anyhow, didn't want to send the camera away as it would take several weeks and wanted it for a trip.

Cheers,

Fid.

--
(¯'·.,¸¸. · ¤ Fid ¤ ·.,¸¸. ·´¯)

 

[Thomas Comerford]

It's not just a mirror though... it's the thing that feeds light into the auto-focus and metering sensors. Personally I'd be very wary about cleaning it, since the reflective surface doesn't have any protection unlike a normal mirror.

--If you have lens cleaning fluid than you can use q-tip with this
and clean up don worry it just a mirror.Just don't use to wet q-tip.
Mironv



http://mironv.smugmug.com/

 

[Brad Waldera]

I didn't know how often a guy is supposed to clean the sensor, so I took my camera to Ritz, where I bought it. I asked the clerk how a guy can tell if the sensor needs cleaning? Before I could stop him, he had the lens off and flipped up the mirror with his finger. I just about had a heart attack! I figured though, he must know what he's doing, and I haven't noticed any difference in the photos since. I've had my D50 since Halloween, have 4200 shutter releases, and so far have only had one speck on the sensor. I used my kids' balloon blower upper to get rid of it. It's an air pump.



--



Brad Waldera

....hey little thing let me light your candle, cuz' a momma I'm sure hard to handle....

 

[kocho]

Does the D50 have a mirror lock-up feature (only for cleaning purposes) like the D70 has? If it does, then the guy at Ritz definitely does NOT know what he is doing. You may not see the specs easily and quickly and will most likely introduce new ones while searchig for them! The best way to get dust in is to remove the lens when the mirror is up!!!

Just shoot at the blue sky and examine your pictures, If you do not see spots, you are fine - no cleaning needed!

I do not hold Ritz in high esteem in general. There are a few good guys/gals here and there, but I think most stores hire inexperienced staff, based on my experience with several "mall" Ritz stores...

 

[markinvictoria]

Does the D50 have a mirror lock-up feature (only for cleaning
purposes) like the D70 has? If it does, then the guy at Ritz
definitely does NOT know what he is doing. You may not see the
specs easily and quickly and will most likely introduce new ones
while searchig for them! The best way to get dust in is to remove
the lens when the mirror is up!!!

Just shoot at the blue sky and examine your pictures, If you do not
see spots, you are fine - no cleaning needed!

When shooting the blue sky, just make sure it is at about f22 or so to check for dust bunnies....Mark

I do not hold Ritz in high esteem in general. There are a few good
guys/gals here and there, but I think most stores hire
inexperienced staff, based on my experience with several "mall"
Ritz stores...

 

[John4]

If you leave the finger smudge there for a long time, it can etch into the silver. At that point you have a permanent smudge. I think you should clean it or have a camera repair shop do it. Also I would be wary of a Q-tip as cotton is mildly abrasive and could scratch the silver. However you are probably better off with a few scratches than a smudge. I would use Kodak Lens paper (dampened with lens cleaner fluid - use a kind that leaves no residue). It used to be made from rice paper which is less abrasive. Probably still is.
Regards John

 

[Brad Waldera]

The nearest camera store to me is Ritz, and it's an hour drive. The D50 does have a mirror lock up, I've used it once so far. I did know about the f/22 stop to check, and I am clean at the moment.
--



Brad Waldera

....hey little thing let me light your candle, cuz' a momma I'm sure hard to handle....

 

[torknut]

I agree. I would try to remove finger marks, if that's what it is, as soon as possible.
--
Best regards
Tor Knutsen

 

[chrismanacop]

it's actually not a finger mark, the tip of the blower ust accidentally touched the mirrow. small mark prolly round 1-3 cms in length.does anyone know how much a cleaninng costs ?
--

 

[raymondox]

The mirror in an slr lens is a fundamental part of the mechanism and is very light and should be well balanced. I would say don't touch it unless you have to. For someone in a camera shop to do as people have said seems an amazing piece of bad practice. It has to be well balanced because it has to move out of the way quickly and back down quickly as wekk as transfer light to other parts of the camera.

I have never touched a mirror on an SLR in my life, but the guy in the shop may well know more than me. SO I'd leave well alone.

The normal advice for mirrors is never touch only ever clean with a blower.

Having said all that once the shot is taken the mirror has no function but to get out of the way as quickly as possible.

I've been using a mirror with bits on it for ages in my Pentax SLR and never suffered as a consequence.

--
Bluenose

 

[chrismanacop]

is best advice to just leave it alone ?
--

 

[Bill E(UK)]

You should not touch the mirror, it is a precision mouted device and usually has no coated surface. It is also carefully aligned to feed light to the viewfinder correctly and at the correct levels for the metering system (in the viewfinder path).

Apart from affecting the light metering and not allowing correct viewing of the frame, the mirror could become contaminated and eventually damaged by erosion caused by the acids on your skin surface.

Also, if mechanically misaligned, the phase detection for focus could be out.

If you mirror is marked, I would get a Nikon center to clean it!

The mirror is more sensitive to damage than the sensor filter!
--
Bill Ellingford
Forest of Dean, UK

 

[chrismanacop]

should I just leave it alone ? the mark is actually miniscule. you really have to look to notice it. I called ritz camera and they advised me to just leave it alone. Does anyone know how much Nikon charges for a cleaning
--

 

[mironv]

--Google rocks if you need something you can look up in few seconds.
CLEANING MIRRORS

Cleaning an SLR mirror requires special care—especially in older SLR's. The reflex mirror has a silver coating on its front surface. The silver coating reflects the light from the lens to the focusing screen. Since the silver coating is very delicate, rubbing the mirror with a dry tissue can cause scratches.

An ordinary household mirror has the silver coating on the back surface of the glass. The glass then protects the silver coating. The front-silvered mirror, although more delicate, eliminates secondary reflections—reflections from the glass surfaces as well as from the silver coating. Manufacturers later added a protective coating over the silver. The protective coating reduces the chance of damage from cleaning the mirror.

If possible, try to restrict your cleaning to blowing off the mirror with a hand blower. The mirror, sitting inside the camera, isn’t as likely to have fingerprints. If you do have to apply lens-cleaning solution, you can use the lens tissue or cotton swab. The soft Pec*Pad, however, may be the safest wipe to use. Using very little pressure, work in horizontal strokes to apply the solution..

As long as the swab or cloth is wet with the solution, there’s not much of a chance of damage. But when you dry the mirror, the danger increases. Use a new Pec*Pad or lens tissue. If you use a microweave lens cloth, make sure it's clean. Work in gentle, horizontal strokes to dry the mirror—be especially gentle with the older SLR’s. Check your work by fogging the mirror with your breath; the fog should appear uniform, indicating that there are no streaks or smudges on the mirror. Wipe off the fog using the same horizontal strokes.

Here again Eclipse™ offers a special advantage. Using Eclipse™, you can just wipe off the fingerprints or other smudges—you don't have to clean the entire mirror. And, because Eclipse dries so quickly, you don't have to wipe the mirror with a dry tissue. As mentioned earlier, it's that dry tissue—not the wet tissue—that normally causes the damage.
Mironv



http://mironv.smugmug.com/