How do I kill an insect crawling inside my viewfinder

<p>OK, there's what appears to be a tick crawling around the focusing screen of my D700. How did I get rid of it before it wanders across the sensor?</p>

<p>Put the camera in the freezer. OR, go down to Walmart and buy a flea & tick collar for your camera.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

A tick is hard to say, but you could try putting a 1/2" or so strip of index card in the bottom of the camera with a few small

drops of pancake syrup and see if it comes down to check it out. Otherwise, it's still up in there dropping around and

might never come out.

<p>Edward, I don't have an answer for you, but I do have a dead bug permanently stuck to my Zeiss Contaflex focus screen as pictured below - hope you get it out while it's still alive. </p>

<p><img src="http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00S/00SAgt-105930584.jpg" alt="" width="620" height="422" /></p>

<p>My Soviet Start SLR came with a bug in the viewfinder, but on it the pentaprism was removable.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I did't get a picture of it before it fell out.</p>

<p>Some cameras are just buggier than others, and of course, this was common in the old USSR.</p>

<p>If you feel comfortable doing it, drop the screen and dust it off following advice you can find here at p'net and other web locations. It is very delicate and scratches easily. If hesitant, there are places that will do the work, incl. Nikon.<br>

An example of doing a removal can be seen here at the outset - <a href="http://www.focusingscreen.com/work/d700en.htm">http://www.focusingscreen.com/work/d700en.htm</a></p>

<p>Jim M.</p>

 

Point the camera at an old barn right

around sunset, and if the camera has a

built in HDR feature use it several

times in a row, set to Vivid. If the bug

has any taste, it will flee the camera as

fast as you can remove the lens. If the

bug is wearing a tiny beret, smoking,

and sipping an espresso, you may

have to resort to kitten photos.

<p>Something I've done that I wouldn't necessarily recommend to others: </p>

<p>Fired up my household vacuum with the crevice tool, and with a finger carefully covering the nozzle by just the right amount, bring the now reduced air intake velocity opening carefully and gradually toward the camera until there is noticeable air turbulence to dislodge (in my case) stubborn debris.</p>

<p>Matt's method sounds plausible but I suspect the first mirror slap will cause the tick to go SPLAT! :-) </p>

 

<p>Having just noticed the thread title: "How do I kill an insect crawling inside my viewfinder", I think Matt's method might prove most effective if killing is the objective. :-) </p>

<p>It's probably not a tick, but some sort of mite. These used to be fairly commonly seen in film cameras, since they'd live off the gelatin of the film. They also appeared to like to sunbathe by crawling across the focusing screen and settling right in the middle. I'm surprised they find anything to eat in a DSLR though - maybe they've evolved to plug themselves into electrical circuits.</p>

<p>Seriously, they live off tiny amounts of moisture and probably any lubricant grease they can find, but they'll die eventually. Where they come from originally is a bit of a mystery. They look huge in the viewfinder but they're much less than a millimetre from end to end. A good blowing out of the camera with a rocket puffer might shift the little blighter(s). </p>

<p>Found this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiyfkrPXiPs"><strong>Proper Focusing Screen Cleaning Tutorial</strong></a>.</p>

<p>Hope it is helpful.</p>

<h1 id="watch-headline-title" > </h1>

<blockquote>

<p>Point the camera at an old barn right around sunset, and if the camera has a built in HDR feature use it several times in a row, set to Vivid. If the bug has any taste, it will flee the camera as fast as you can remove the lens. If the bug is wearing a tiny beret, smoking, and sipping an espresso, you may have to resort to kitten photos.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Amen!!</p>

<p>ROFLOL</p>

<p>Use a hammer.</p>

<p>Kent, your answer was a classic. :-)</p>

<p>The screen on the D700 is removable, though it is a bit tricky. Drop the screen and you should be able to get the bug out. And by the way, I am pretty sure it is not a tick, even a deer tick, though much smaller than a dog tick, would appear huge in your viewfinder.</p>

Simple. Rent a Justin Bieber concert DVD and then play extremely loud and set the camera in front of the tv and leave

the house. The insect will kill itself in short order...

<p>Waiter, there seems to be a fly in my camera.<br>

Ssssh. Everyone will want one.</p>