Did I ruin my mirror?

[Riboflavin]

Okay, so the mirror to my Canon 6D was dirty with a bit of grease (from my finger) and dust that couldn't be blown off so I tried cleaning it with a Rosco microfiber lens cloth which looked like it worked but under closer inspection left sort of an underlayer of grease spread on the mirror. Unsatisfied with that I had the brilliant idea to use scotch tape to lift the grease from the mirror. So I took the scotch tape and lightly pressed it onto the mirror - with only enough pressure to make it stick - and then pulled it off. It worked pretty well and everything looks fine but after reading about how to properly clean it I'm afraid I may have damaged in in some way thats not visibly obvious. Admittedly, this was at the very least a risky procedure and I let my OCD tendencies override my better judgement but is it something that will become an expensive lesson in camera care?

[ScottyP]

The mirror is not any part of the image, and only serves to focus and to let you see through the viewfinder, and it has no delicate electronics. For that reason, it would not be as critical to baby it and keep it spotlessly clean as it is for the sensor.  If it looks basically clean, and since you didn't accidentally rip it off with the tape or anything, I'd think you are OK.  

[RobertTheFat]

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@Riboflavin wrote:

Okay, so the mirror to my Canon 6D was dirty with a bit of grease (from my finger) and dust that couldn't be blown off so I tried cleaning it with a Rosco microfiber lens cloth which looked like it worked but under closer inspection left sort of an underlayer of grease spread on the mirror. Unsatisfied with that I had the brilliant idea to use scotch tape to lift the grease from the mirror. So I took the scotch tape and lightly pressed it onto the mirror - with only enough pressure to make it stick - and then pulled it off. It worked pretty well and everything looks fine but after reading about how to properly clean it I'm afraid I may have damaged in in some way thats not visibly obvious. Admittedly, this was at the very least a risky procedure and I let my OCD tendencies override my better judgement but is it something that will become an expensive lesson in camera care?

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If the tape left any of its stickum on the mirror, it might be more likely to collect dust from now on. But it doesn't sound like you've done anything that a professional cleaning won't fix. Send it to a Canon factory service center; there are several in the U.S., if that's where you are. All my cameras visit the one in Jamesburg, NJ every year or two, and they always come back spotless.

[ebiggs1]

I could write a book with all the stories I have heard over the years. About what folks thought was a good idea at the time.

The worse thing you could have done was bend or misaligned linkage in the mirror box.  There are just too many things in there that fingers don't make better.

I think I would send it to Canon as Bob from Boston suggested.  Make sure you tell them what you did !  It is better to let them know exactly what to look for.

I remember one guy that thought acetone was the thing to use to clean his mirror.