Re: Insect In Viewfinder !!

denis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: 
My purchase of a Nikon F601 from a dealer on Ebay has gone sour -
although described as 'Excellent ++'it has arrived looking very shabby
- I would have been ashamed to offer it for sale. I will be sending it
back and asking for a refund - fingers crossed!

The dealer has 97.7% positive feedback - 8127, Neutral 180, negative
178 in the past 12 months; with hindsight perhaps I wasn't cautious
enough, giving isufficient thought to the 'only' 2.3% negatives.

Fortunately I have found another 601 on Ebay offered by a private
owner(All 90 feedbacks positive) - with a 35-80 Nikkor lens for £55(
around $99.00 - only £12 more. Having asked for exact details of the
cosmetics I am assured that it is unmarked; the only negative(ha, ha!)
factor is that there is a small insect showing in the bottom l/h corner
of the viewfinder.

Presumably the insect could only have entered the camera when no lens
was fitted and could be anywhere between the mirror and viefinder - not
necessarily in the viewfinder itself.Could this be blown out with
compressed air? It would be uneconomic to send the camera to a repairer
and if necessary I can live with the insect but would like to get rid
of it if I can.

Denis Boisclair
Cheshire, UK.

PS Having been away from this site for some time I am struck by the
greatly reduced number of posts - obviously many have migrated to
rec.photo.digital.


Denis,

Is the insect sharp, i.e. in focus? If so that should mean that it is on underside of the focusing screen. With a bit of luck you should be able to gently flick it out with a small soft brush. Just take off the lens and have a look in there.
I'd be careful about blasting away with compressed air. Might be ok, but if you hi the shutter it might do some damage.

Re. eBay, I've used it quite a bit, generally with good results. I am quite wary though of dealing with anyone with negative feedback. You can read them and sometimes get a feel of what's going on. People do leave negative feedback vindictively sometimes, or because they are unreasonable, but genrally people seem reluctant to give a negative so when they do it is for something fairly bad.







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