Posted by Larry Lynch on March 23, 2007 at 11:43 AM
There are a lot of products with cleaning sensors in slr cameras but information on cleaning the mirror is hard to find. One must be very careful with the finish on the mirror as I understand it is not the strongest finish and can be subject to damage very easily. I was just asking if any of you might offer things that work well for you other than the air bulb. Thanks.
I had gotten a second hand Olympus E-1 that had an ugly greasy fingerprint right on the mirror. Not that it disturbed the view through the viewfinder but it irritated me to have such a smudge in my camera, so I reckoned it couldn't become worse and took the risk ro clean it.
Disclaimer: Below, I describe what [i]I did and if you want to repeat that, it is on your own risk.[/i]
I used lens cleaning fluid from Hama that I sprayed onto a high quality cotton stick so that it became damp (not dripping wet but not dry either). I then, with the side of the cotton tip, I swept very gently from one side of the mirror to the other while rotating the cotton stick slightly by slowly rolling it between the fingers during the sweep. The idea was to pick up the dirt on the cotton and remove it from the mirror during the sweeping. I repeated it until the mirror looked good and I used a new cotton stick for each sweep so that old dirt wasn't redeposited.
It took about 2 minutes and the mirror now looks perfectly clean and there are not any visible scratches (even when scrutinized with readers on under intense halogen light). I am frankly a bit surprised about this because I once cleaned an SLR mirror (from the 70's) that got several tiny scratches. On that old camera, it didn't affect the function but on a new AF-camera scratches on the mirror could jeopardize the function of the AF-system.
I don't know if the Olympus E-1 mirror is more durable than others or if it simply is progress in reflective thin film coatings technology that has made the mirrors more robust in general.
Unless it is really intolerable to look through I wouldn't mess with it. The mirror filth isn't recorded on the film/sensor anyhow.
Pete D.
Posted by Tom Webster on March 23, 2007 at 5:42 PM
If the mirror is truly grungy, take it to a camera repair center. I'm sure they can clean the mirror properly for a minimum fee and you won't risk damaging the mirror.
Discussion
4 repliesGuy
I had gotten a second hand Olympus E-1 that had an ugly greasy fingerprint right on the mirror. Not that it disturbed the view through the viewfinder but it irritated me to have such a smudge in my camera, so I reckoned it couldn't become worse and took the risk ro clean it.
Disclaimer: Below, I describe what [i]I did and if you want to repeat that, it is on your own risk.[/i]
I used lens cleaning fluid from Hama that I sprayed onto a high quality cotton stick so that it became damp (not dripping wet but not dry either). I then, with the side of the cotton tip, I swept very gently from one side of the mirror to the other while rotating the cotton stick slightly by slowly rolling it between the fingers during the sweep. The idea was to pick up the dirt on the cotton and remove it from the mirror during the sweeping. I repeated it until the mirror looked good and I used a new cotton stick for each sweep so that old dirt wasn't redeposited.
It took about 2 minutes and the mirror now looks perfectly clean and there are not any visible scratches (even when scrutinized with readers on under intense halogen light). I am frankly a bit surprised about this because I once cleaned an SLR mirror (from the 70's) that got several tiny scratches. On that old camera, it didn't affect the function but on a new AF-camera scratches on the mirror could jeopardize the function of the AF-system.
I don't know if the Olympus E-1 mirror is more durable than others or if it simply is progress in reflective thin film coatings technology that has made the mirrors more robust in general.
Cheers, Jens.
Pete D.