Dust in viewfinder of XE-5

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I received the XE-5 that I won on the famous auction site.

Really nice camera - my first Minolta! The two Rokkors that I also

won are due every day now. There is quite some dust inside the

eyepiece of the body though, but it doesn't show up when looking

through it (perhaps it will with a lens on the camera?). Is it

difficult to take off the prism cover? Can anyone explain how to do

this please, or should I leave it alone? Thanks,

How do you know there is dust if you can't see it?

 

Dust in the viewing system - prism, focussing screen and mirror will not affect the final image. From experience I know it is very easy to make things worse by trying to clean this area. My advice would be to live with it.

 

I think when using old equipment things are rarely perfect any you often have to turn a blind eye to the odd imperfection.

I thought my explanation was clear but obviously not... allow me to clarify : I can see a lot of dust on the inside of the eyepiece glass and also on the back of the prism facing the eyepiece (or on a second internal glass between the prism and the eyepiece anyway). The dust doesnt seem to interfere with the eye close to the eyepiece (shooting position), perhaps because the eye is so close then. This is my first Minolta, but by no means my first SLR, so I do know it won't shop up in the images. So I would only attempt to clean it if the access is easy. Thx

Benny

 

I see what you are saying - you can see the dust from a distance but not with your eye to the viewfinder with no lens fitted.

 

It may be easy to open it up and clean it out - others may come in and explain how to do it. My own attempts to do anything like this are almost invariably fatal. Hence my earlier advice.

 

I hope you enjoy using your Minolta.

Let it alone! Even if you could get the prism off without damage or losing small parts, do you have the correct adhesive and new seals to replace the ones that will be damaged by removal?

John and Geoff,

Thanks for the (good) advice. I think I'll leave it alone - I don't want to ruin this new toy. I've already had my own share of disasters in trying things beyond my skills when it comes to cameras. I just thoght the Minolta VF would be easy to remove.

As I said, the Rokkors I won on *bay have not yet arrived, but I think the dust will not show even with a lens on the body. From experience I know that dirt on a focussing screen is sometimes very, sometimes hardly visible depending on the focal length of the lens in use (I notice that on my Topcon Unirex). But dust in the VF is probably different because closer to the eye and not in the plane of focus like goo on a screen. Thx.