Red Speck on Viewfinder Window

[luc9488]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I just received a used M10 this past week but there seems to be a very small red speck of paint on the exterior glass of the viewfinder.

I've tried to use a simple microfibre cloth to clean it off but no dice. Any thoughts on what's safe to use on the viewfinder glass?

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[250swb]

Fingernail?

[Kwesi]

I would be weary of trying anything that would either scratch the glass or harm the antireflective coating. have you tried moistening the micro fiber cloth before wiping gently?

Last resort. Is it returnable?

[250swb]

2 hours ago, Kwesi said:

I would be weary of trying anything that would either scratch the glass or harm the antireflective coating. have you tried moistening the micro fiber cloth before wiping gently?

Last resort. Is it returnable?

Has anybody ever scratched glass with a fingernail? And modern glass coatings are even tougher than the glass. 

[farnz]

I've met some young ladies who could scratch a viewfinder (and other, umm ... 'delicate' things) with their fingernails although to be fair they did have cubic Zirconias glued to their nails.  "It's all the fash, Dahling!"

But I agree that gracefully ageing gentlemen who own Leica cameras and lenses are highly unlikely to scratch a viewfinder with their fingernails.

Pete.

[250swb]

The last time I heard of somebody scratching glass with a fingernail was Count Dracula, but hey, who am I to say who people mix with. 😄

[Kwesi]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

5 hours ago, 250swb said:

Has anybody ever scratched glass with a fingernail? And modern glass coatings are even tougher than the glass. 

If something got firmly stuck on my viewfinder glass my first thought wouldn't be "let me dig at it with my fingernail" but hey! live and let live.

[250swb]

21 hours ago, Kwesi said:

If something got firmly stuck on my viewfinder glass my first thought wouldn't be "let me dig at it with my fingernail" but hey! live and let live.

No don't 'dig' but have a sense of the materials around you and what the world is made of. Have you ever read 'Zen and the Art of Motorcylce Maintainence', ok an old hippy self awareness book now, but the basic tenet is use only the tools meant for the job and understand why they are the tools. Then it goes off into some personal relationship shit that defined the decade.

[AndreasG]

Am 17.5.2020 um 03:30 schrieb luc9488:

Any thoughts on what's safe to use on the viewfinder glass?

Try it with a cotton swab and nail polish remover, it will not harm the glass/coating.

[tomconte]

https://youtu.be/B3l0kpl5tA4

[farnz]

19 minutes ago, tomconte said:

https://youtu.be/B3l0kpl5tA4

I don't think I'll be clicking an unknown https weblink particularly since Googling youtu.be returns "No information is available for this page" because the website prevented Google from creating a page description.

It might be entirely harmless but I don't want to find out the hard way that it's not harmless.

Pete.

[Chuck Albertson]

Try a bit of saliva, the universal solvent.

[tomconte]

19 hours ago, farnz said:

I don't think I'll be clicking an unknown https weblink particularly since Googling youtu.be returns "No information is available for this page" because the website prevented Google from creating a page description.

It might be entirely harmless but I don't want to find out the hard way that it's not harmless.

Pete.

It's the normal url for You Tube videos that gets generated when you click the "share" link on You Tube. 

But good thing you didn't click on it. 

It's a scary video about a black dot on the sun. 

 

[Herr Barnack]

22 hours ago, AndreasG said:

Try it with a cotton swab and nail polish remover, it will not harm the glass/coating.

Denatured alcohol, perhaps?

[onasj]

I guess I feel compelled to comment as a chemist.

As important as what solvent you use to try to remove the speck is what cloth you use.  I would recommend a clean microfiber cloth, perhaps wrapped around the end of a Q-tip.

In order of increasing solvent "strength", you could use:

- Water

- Methanol (which is the main ingredient in many wet lens and sensor cleaning packages), or a water-methanol mixture

- Ethanol (booze), or a water-ethanol mixture

- Isopropanol-water (rubbing alcohol, which is 70% isopropanol and 30% water)

- Acetone (nail polish remover)

Not quite on the same chemical scale is "goo gone"—basically citrus oil—which works very well on sticky residues.  And smells like oranges (clean with one of the alcohols above if needed afterwards).

Once you get past ethanol, be careful to not get the solvent on anything but the glass itself—it could partially dissolve paint, glues, etc.  You could use a sensor-cleaning swab if you wanted to be very careful.

Before you try any of the above, I suggest using a loupe (or a macro lens!) to get a good look at the speck, and ensure it is not embedded in the glass but rather is a bonafide surface object.  

Of course, the irony is that the OP probably solved this problem already, leaving the rest of the forum to pontificate haha.

(As usual, try at your own risk.)

Edited May 19, 2020 by onasj

[250swb]

If it's a liquid to remove glue you want ordinary white spirit removes most contact adhesive type glues if we assume it's just a tiny sliver of sticky tape, where alcohol can just spread it around. If it's paint it is most likely to be a modern acrylic so cellulose thinners or nail polish remover. Any cleaning will either add an ingredient, so a fingernail will add finger grease, or thinners/white spirit will remove natural finger grease. So the initial cleaning shouldn't be seen as the final cleaning. Especially on the camera body cleaning it can make it look dull because it has removed the finger oils, so it just needs to rebalance with further use.

[Jeff S]

I thought we paid a premium for red dots.  

Jeff

[250swb]

15 minutes ago, Jeff S said:

I thought we paid a premium for red dots.  

Jeff

And cameras not made by robots.

I think in this case the OP has flown, we will never know the true answer unless there is a news broadcast in which the headline is 'Man cleans red dot off camera with dynamite', but at least nobody has suggested that.......yet.

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[adan]

To me, this red-speck incident just proves that Leica employees do put their blood, sweat and tears into their work.

[1joel1]

On 5/19/2020 at 11:56 AM, onasj said:

I guess I feel compelled to comment as a chemist.

As important as what solvent you use to try to remove the speck is what cloth you use.  I would recommend a clean microfiber cloth, perhaps wrapped around the end of a Q-tip.

In order of increasing solvent "strength", you could use:

- Water

- Methanol (which is the main ingredient in many wet lens and sensor cleaning packages), or a water-methanol mixture

- Ethanol (booze), or a water-ethanol mixture

- Isopropanol-water (rubbing alcohol, which is 70% isopropanol and 30% water)

- Acetone (nail polish remover)

Not quite on the same chemical scale is "goo gone"—basically citrus oil—which works very well on sticky residues.  And smells like oranges (clean with one of the alcohols above if needed afterwards).

Once you get past ethanol, be careful to not get the solvent on anything but the glass itself—it could partially dissolve paint, glues, etc.  You could use a sensor-cleaning swab if you wanted to be very careful.

Before you try any of the above, I suggest using a loupe (or a macro lens!) to get a good look at the speck, and ensure it is not embedded in the glass but rather is a bonafide surface object.  

Of course, the irony is that the OP probably solved this problem already, leaving the rest of the forum to pontificate haha.

(As usual, try at your own risk.)

He is correct. Always follow this path. (I'm a physicist and nearly finished my chemistry degree as well).

As an aside, try a dab of WD-40. It's very mild and can't hurt the glass. Use a soft microfiber cloth and don't spread the red dot around as it might cause scratching.

Joel