Anyone have their focusing screen fall out?

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
Hi all:

I was on a shoot yesterday, shooting stills and video of an A-list musician and in the middle of shooting some stills with my 5D MKII, the picture became all blurry, no matter what I tried. Upon removing the lens, I discovered that the focusing screen on the camera had somehow worked itself loose and was floating around inside the camera. I quickly and carefully re-inserted it into the mirror box and continued the shoot without incident.

But now the focusing screen has some pretty bad grease strips and chunks of debris on it so I ordered a couple of replacement screens from Amazon today. Luckily I was able to complete the shoot and the client was okay with me missing a few stills because the camera malfunctioned.

1. Has anyone ever had this happen? What would cause the focusing screen to "fall out" of the mirror box?

2. I assume it is pretty simple to change out the focusing screen? It sure did look like it.

Nothing like a little stress in the middle of a shooting day to keep you on your toes.

Thanks,

Dan
 
It is pretty easy to remove. I'm thinking maybe you hit the lever that holds it in place when you changed a lens or something almost disengageing it and then as the shoot progressed with continued mirror slaps, it fell out. My theory anyway.
 
Were you using a canon lens? If you had an adapted lens on there maybe something was lightly striking the mirror without you realizing it... or had in the past? During stills shooting that mirror box is flipped up and down real fast and bangs around quite a bit. If the mirror is loose it could dislodge from the frame. It's designed to be removable, so as long as it feels secure now you should be ok.

I'm going to be checking mine often now. You don't want that mirror scrapping up against the sensor. Ever.
 
Thanks for the advice and hypothesis. I was using a Nikon 50mm 1.4 AI with an adapter so I guess it is possible that the lens could have hit that little release lever. Such a drag.

Thanks,

Dan
 
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