Gunk - Lens - Mirror & Sensor!!

I shot some speedway for the first time last night! Was a bit of a nightmare! Chain link fences, couldnt get much higher than the track, and it was a little futher away from the action for my 200mm

Still was a good first time out with the 7D (AI Sucks though)

I had a quick look at them when i got home and all of them have crap all over them!

I checked the front and back lens, a few bits of dust, easy to clean up with a soft brush and cloth...

Did the mirror lock up, and found a few small hairs on the sensor, again a quick brush and looks ok now, fairly easy...

Now this is the part im stumped with...

The mirror, when i look though the camera with out a lens on to the sky there is crude all over the mirror, and something has smudged on it!

also there seems to be some dust on the internal eye piece glass to, thats tucked up inside the camera!

My camera is new, not had much exercize really, and i have only changed the lens once, in doors!

I always keep my camera cleaned and in top form, and always dust the body off befor i put it away!

Im going to buy a rocket blower, and i know that blowing into the body is bad as micro water particals from your mouth find the way into the body!

How do i get ride of the smudge on the mirror with out harming it?

I looked at a Q-tip (thing for ears) but there quite fibery, and i dont want to push to hard as not to dislodge the mirror!

Any ideas?

Just to note, i have a OCD for cleaning, i live in a nice clean enviroment, so dont think my house is a tip and have never stuck anything in the body to get a smudge on the mirror so im totaly dumbfounded from where it come from!

You can either look at getting it cleaned professionally or try something like the Copperhill method

neilwood32 wrote in post #10005337
You can either look at getting it cleaned professionally or try something like the Copperhill method

NO, NO, NO! To the question "How do i get ride of the smudge on the mirror with out harming it?", don't try to clean the mirror! Only Canon should fix that, but if you're sure that you didn't do it, as you said in "My camera is new, not had much exercize really, and i have only changed the lens once, in doors!", then you should raise that issue with whoever you bought it from.

I havent touched it yet, i freaked out when i read the part that the mirror glass is thinner than a strand of hair!

I brought it brand new, my guess is that i brought body only - but the box was for a body with kit lens.

Maybe when they took the lens out of the kit, somehow it got smudged by a member of staff? Just the only thing i can think of!

Under the scope, its not a finger print

If you are seeing things in your veiwfinder, I doubt it is on your mirror. It is more likely to be on the focusing screen or somewhere in your veiwfinder. If you can actually see crud on your mirror when you look directly at it from the front, that is a different matter.

I can tell you from shooting motorsports for a few years, it's a great way to get gunk on and into your camera.

Cosha wrote in post #10008323
I havent touched it yet, i freaked out when i read the part that the mirror glass is thinner than a strand of hair!

No it's not. The front coating on the surface is quite thin, but it's still not made of gossamer. The mirror itself is thin but plenty sturdy enough.

But smudges and junk on the mirror will not show up on your pictures. The mirror is flipped up out of the way when the exposure is taken.

A really dirty mirror can affect exposure, and you can also see really big spots in the viewfinder.

Sounds like yours is pretty dirty, though.

If it were mine I'd clean it with Eclipse fluid (pure methanol) and a Pec Pad - the same stuff I use to clean my sensor.

But since it's new, why not either return it to the store or to Canon repair? It's unlikely the mirror got crudded up at the speedway, unless you had the lens off for extended periods.

-js