scratched focus screen during sensor cleaning

[britt777]

:confused: I was trying to clean my sensor. All went well til I held my camera up to take a picture and saw a bunch of spots and hair, lint, string what ever it may have been. I kept trying to use my bulb to blow the stuff out and it would move. The only thing I could think to get in the space was a q-tip. I used the liquid drops that I use when swabbing the sensor, but it now appears to have permanent scratches and spots....grrrr. It doesn't appear to be affecting my pictures, it just what I see in the view finder now when I take my pictures.... Oh how frustrating. Dirty Sensors, what a nightmare. Any tips on what I should do, If I need to do anything.
Also if this has happened to anyone else, your stories would be nice. I feel like an idiot for trying to clean my sensor. I am very anal and don't like dirt, especially on my photos. Thanks in advance

[pvonk]

Hi, my 20D has just undergone a cleansing as well. I had both spots on the pictures (due to dust on the sensor) and through the viewfinder (dust on the mirror and the glass above the mirror, don't know its technical name).

Your sensor should not produce spots when you look through the viewfinder (eyepiece). This affects the pictures only. Were you cleaning the mirror instead - that's what you should try cleaning. Check the following thread:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=76139

[tim]

Have you scratched it, or is there just a piece of something inside the camera? You could try gently cleaning the mirror, or there's a panel thingy in the top of the camera that sometimes collects stuff too. I use the copperhill kit to do the cleaning. BE CAREFUL. If in doubt return it to Canon for them to clean it, and replace anything that's damaged.

[britt777]

it is definitely scratched. Don't ever take a Q-tip to the inside of camera. may look just like the sensor swabs, but it's not. It isn't affecting my pictures thank God, but it does affect what I see in my view finder....=( Guess I will just have to learn to look past those scratches. Hope this post will be of some help to others not to take a q-tip to the inside of camera. I still just don't see how that could have happened. Oh well. Happy shooting to all.

[dsze]

I wouldn't ever touch the mirror with anything at all besides air from a rocket blower. The stuff on the mirror doesn't show up in photos anyway. Sorry about your scratches :(

-daniel

[pierrot]

Canon Service can replace your focusing screen, and it appears not not to be as expensive as I first thought. Less than $50 according to what I read on forums here and there.

[pvonk]

Canon Service can replace your focusing screen

"focusing screen" - is that the technical name for the glass above the mirror? I'm not talking about the sensor, but the glass inside the chamber, at the roof. I didn't know what it was called.

- Pierre

[Jon]

Yep. That's what you see the image on when you look through the viewfinder.

[KennyG]

The focus screen is etched and easily damaged and should not be touched with Q-tips, brushes or swabs. If a good quality blower does not remove the debris, then the likelyhood is that it is behind the screen. In that case, unless you are very confident of removing the screen, have it cleaned professionally.

[ron chappel]

Brit i suspect that you may not have scratched the focus screen at all but most likely the cleaning fluid has had an effect in the freznel lenses etched into the screen.
Liquid has a very bad effect on the freznel pattern making it look dreadfull -with edges and splotches showing where there is very little.

Have it professionally cleaned

[britt777]

thanks for all the tips. Ron that makes sense, I will probably just have to have screen replaced. I don't think I can be that long without my camera...lol

[Ogrt48]

Just order the screen for $12 from canon and replace it yourself. IT really takes less than 5 minutes. All you do is popoff that metal piece holding it in with tweezers, drop the new one in, use tweezers to put metal frame on and tada.

[DocFrankenstein]

Yeah, the screen is easy to replace. I took it out and put it in. You need a pointy pushing device and tweezers.

[Gordon S.]

Is this screen replacement similar on the 350D? I want to remove mine to clean it. Via a bonehead move with an old dusty lens cloth its absolutely coated in dust and no amount of blowing seems to help.

[muscleflex]

Yeah, the screen is easy to replace. I took it out and put it in. You need a pointy pushing device and tweezers.

would you be able to produce step step guides with pics for this? i think this will help a lot of people!

[felix21685]

yeah a step by step direction..review..im sure one of hte admins would make it a sticky

[mocca]

I removed the focus screen on the 350D to clean it couple of times before. It is fairly easy but require a lot of care and proper tools. My friend also did the same with his 20D.

I know that Canon will sell you the part if you call them and able to tell them the part number. But does anyone know the part number for the focus screen on the 350D? I want to have one for a spare :)

MM

[Jackal]

Someone needs to post a tutorial with pictures on how to change/remove the focus screen on a 20D and 350D.

[DocFrankenstein]

I'll try to post something in a week or so

[viper_chad]

i just want to revive this thread.. if the focusing screen became dirtier due to cleaning of user, is it still covered by the warranty? will canon clean it for free?

[ron chappel]

Very likely not. This will be covered in the owners manual i would think (i'm too lazy to find mine to check :))
If they say not to touch it then it will be likely they won't clean it under warrantee.

[MadMesh]

can you tell if the sensor is dirty by just LOOKING at it with a flash light? Or do you really need to do that photoshop test... like take a picture of a white peice of paper or the sky ..?

[ron chappel]

Big specs you can see but smaller ones are difficult or impossible to see.

I actually clean my sensor by shining a strong light in there and then lift the specs off one by one...but i need to take a pic first so i know where i should be looking

[Jonny]

I did exactly the same thing with my old 300d and had to have the focusing screen replaced.
It cost me around £30 ($55 approx).

From now on i don't touch the inside of my camera with anything smaller than my elbow!

[buze]

Actualy this week-end something similar happened to me. I think I did something stupid with the camera cap and it became staticaly charged or something, it was on a cloth and I put it on the camera to do some proper lens cleaning of all my kit...
When I put the lens on later there was a lot of very fine hair-like thing on the focusing screen (and on the sensor, mirror etc!)
I managed to clean the sensor and mirror, but just can't clean the focus screen. The thing is, it DOES affect the focusing and makes AI servo totaly useless (focus hunts all the time etc).

So if anyone has a tip has how to remove it to get it cleaned (before I have to return the camera for cleaning) it'd be great.