[Billium28]

I was taking some pictures this afternoon with my brand new (less than 24 hours old) K-x. I noticed strange looking specs in viewfinder. They are fine dusty powder looking dots. If you look hard they seem to form rings going outward from center. I tried looking out a bright window, with and without my glasses, and at a white wall. Still show up, dusted off the lense, and then the viewfinder glass and no change. Until I moved to wide angle, 18mm, they disappeared, or to be more exact, they went out of focus enough to disappear. At tele they reappear, and as you move down then lense they faintly fade away.

I never had the lense off without the covers for more than 3 seconds. And when its not in use it has the lense cap on. I dont see the specs in the pictures zoomed in. I did the camera sensor shake clean still no change.

They are not distracting enough for me not to use it but I find it odd, I dont remember them being there last night when I started using it out of the box.

Any ideas?

[deadwolfbones]

I was taking some pictures this afternoon with my brand new (less than 24 hours old) K-x. I noticed strange looking specs in viewfinder. They are fine dusty powder looking dots. If you look hard they seem to form rings going outward from center. I tried looking out a bright window, with and without my glasses, and at a white wall. Still show up, dusted off the lense, and then the viewfinder glass and no change. Until I moved to wide angle, 18mm, they disappeared, or to be more exact, they went out of focus enough to disappear. At tele they reappear, and as you move down then lense they faintly fade away.

I never had the lense off without the covers for more than 3 seconds. And when its not in use it has the lense cap on. I dont see the specs in the pictures zoomed in. I did the camera sensor shake clean still no change.

They are not distracting enough for me not to use it but I find it odd, I dont remember them being there last night when I started using it out of the box.

Any ideas?

I'm pretty sure that's just the ground glass of the prism--helps with manual focusing.

[Marc Sabatella]

Right, and it will indeed be more visible in some lighting conditions and with some lenses than others. After a couple of days you'll stop noticing this, and just appreciate the ease of manual focus compared to many other entry-level DSLR's.

[gsrokmix]

Funny, I just experienced the same thing with my K20 & a few different lenses last night! I was playing around with my M42 100mm Macro & I saw a few of what looked to be dust specks. I changed to my kit lens & they were still there. When & did the sensor cleaning (vibration), & flipped the mirror & opened the shutter & blew out with air they are still there. I never noticed these before. I thought it was dust. They show up in very light areas of the viewfinder when at longer focal lengths. When I had the camera do a dust scan (alert) on the sensor there were some black areas on the white picture it took but these black spots moved or were different every time I did it over a 10 minute period. So this is not dust? I too have not changed lenses in a way to have dust get into the body.

Thanks!

George

[Billium28]

its funny i havent really noticed them much since but just found it odd, thanks for the tips

[boodiespost]

initially i thought it was someones fingerprints and was wondering if mine were somehow sold used, glad to know it is there by default. By they way, how would that "smudge or dust" help with manual focusing?

[WerTicus]

do they show up in photos if not its probably the focus screen.

I have dust behind my focus screen, but its not worth the effort to remove since it does not affect the light to the sensor only the view finder.

[Lowell Goudge]

I was taking some pictures this afternoon with my brand new (less than 24 hours old) K-x. I noticed strange looking specs in viewfinder. They are fine dusty powder looking dots. If you look hard they seem to form rings going outward from center. I tried looking out a bright window, with and without my glasses, and at a white wall. Still show up, dusted off the lense, and then the viewfinder glass and no change. Until I moved to wide angle, 18mm, they disappeared, or to be more exact, they went out of focus enough to disappear. At tele they reappear, and as you move down then lense they faintly fade away.

I never had the lense off without the covers for more than 3 seconds. And when its not in use it has the lense cap on. I dont see the specs in the pictures zoomed in. I did the camera sensor shake clean still no change.

They are not distracting enough for me not to use it but I find it odd, I dont remember them being there last night when I started using it out of the box.

Any ideas?

Just a couple of notes here,

- dust on the viewing screen will always be at the same focus regardless of lens attached, therefore it is probably NOT on the viewing screen

- cleaning the sensor will not impact dust on the viewing screen or any where else in the optical path when looking through the viewfinder because the sensor is NOT involved in the viewfinder image

I suspect if the dust moves in and out of focus it is either on the mirror, or the rear element of the lens,

[Marc Sabatella]

So this is not dust?

If they are large, oddly-shaped, and or irregular in appearance, it's dust. If it looks like a very fine grid pattern across the whole viewfinder, it's just the texture of the focus screen.

I too have not changed lenses in a way to have dust get into the body.

Dust will find a way.

[Marc Sabatella]

By they way, how would that "smudge or dust" help with manual focusing?

Without any sort of pattern or texture, there would be nothing to form the image - the light would just pass straight through the screen like any other lens. There has to be something that isn't transparent in order for an image to form. Finding the right type of surface to make the image bright enough to see well and yet sharp enough to make focus possible is tricky, but in general, the sort of tradeoffs one would make to make a screen brighter end up making focusing harder, and vice versa. At least, that's how I've generally seen it explained.