For a while now, I’ve considered upgrading my camera to a mirrorless. I wanted to have at least one mirrorless camera to help with teaching and creating photography material, and I knew technology had advanced enough now to know that using a mirrorless camera could be quite advantageous.

However, the mirrorless system is expensive. It’s new. I would need to sell one of my main DSLRs to afford the upgrade. But selling and researching and buying a new camera all takes time. And my current equipment was excellent as it was, so I wasn’t in any hurry to upset the status quo.

But then one day, back in June, I received a text from a friend. He was interested in upgrading to Canon from his old Pentax equipment. I offered my 5Diii. Over the next few months, we went back and forth, discussing the value of my equipment and researching what camera I would upgrade to. By September, we were ready for an official transaction. We had landed on a price that was a good deal for both of us. Adding what I had in savings, the sale of the 5Diii would give me what I needed to make the transition to a mirrorless camera.

That is, if nothing happened to the 5Diii . . .

The day came for me to pack up my trusty companion of many years. It was in very good condition considering how much I used it. Some dings here and there, but the rock-solid construction and whether-sealed body had made it my favorite outdoor landscape photography camera for a long time. And after a good cleaning, it almost looked like new!

But before putting it in the box, I happened to look through the viewfinder. Specs. Not a ton of them, but enough to make it feel like it was a used camera. I carefully took the lens off and cleaned the mirror. The specs were still there.

“Ah, they must be up on the focus screen.”

Without giving it much thought, I pulled the rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip out of the cabinet. I’ve been emersed in the world of photography for so long, it didn’t even cross my mind to research how to clean a focus screen.

I gently wiped the focus screen back and forth with the Q-tip. Looking through the viewfinder again, the specs were indeed disappearing. But in their place was something much, much worse. It’s hard to describe what it looked like. Light-colored strokes were apparent where I had just wiped.

At first, I thought it was just residue from the alcohol or Q-tip that just needed wiped off. So I wiped it again. That only made it worse. Perhaps it was just because the alcohol hadn’t dried yet? The more I wiped, the more strokes were visible through the viewfinder.

Puzzled, and starting to get concerned, I went to my computer. My heart sank as I read article titles like “use only water to clean the focus screen” and “why solvents ruin screens” and “rubbing alcohol will dissolve the fine ridges on your focus screen”. This video confirmed my fears. To make things worse, I had pulled out the 90% rubbing alcohol, instead of the 70%. If I was going to mess things up, I was going to mess them up big!

Horrified at what I had just done (the very day I was going to ship out the camera!) a million thoughts were spinning through my head. “Did I just ruin my camera?! How much did my camera just decrease in value? How in the world will I tell my friend? Maybe it would be ok if I didn’t tell him? Would he ever know the difference? . . . What in the world should I do?!”

What would you do in this situation? I really needed the money for my upgrade. And wore then that, what about my reputation as a “knowledgeable” photography educator? The temptation was strong to hide or downplay my stupidity.

But no, I needed to tell my friend. That would be the right thing to do. “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25). If I am one to encourage others to conform their life to Scripture, then I had better do the same myself.

So, I told my friend everything that had transpired, what the damage looked like, offered to replace the focus screen if he wanted, and just left it up to him to decide what he wanted to do.

Surprisingly, he said to just send it as it was. “If it becomes an actual issue, after I’ve actually seen it and used it for a bit, then I may ask you to finance a repair”.

And as it turned out, I must not have had too much 90% rubbing alcohol on that Q-tip. By the time I actually sent the camera off, looking through the viewfinder you couldn’t see anything, unless light was coming through at just the right angle. I’m not exactly sure how it all works, but I’m thankful that God worked it all out. And I certainly learned how not to clean a focus screen!

At any rate, this is why I didn’t have my 5Diii for the northern lights on October 10 (which you can read about here).

Soon after, though, I bought my first mirrorless camera. The Canon R6. And here are some photos and comments from my first excursion with it!

This is the 2nd photo I took with the new camera. I was literally unboxing it on the drive to Swallow Falls State Park (while someone else was driving, of course), so none of my settings were set properly, including the Quality setting. Most of my first photos were taken in JPG, and I could tell right away in editing. The blown out highlights were much less forgiving.

I felt like a kid in a candy shop, excited about taking pictures of every little thing I walked past. 🙂

I also felt extremely awkward, pointing the camera at smiling subjects for a very long time before releasing the shutter. There were new focus modes to explore, new buttons to get used to, and oh! Everything I wanted to do, I didn’t know where to go to do it! I felt like a complete beginner. At one point, a whole group was waiting for me to take their photo, and I simply couldn’t because I didn’t know how to move my focus point to where they were standing! Ah, both awkward and hilariously frustrating at the same time. 🙂 It was super good for me, though, as an educator, because I was reminded how newbies must feel.

The one thing I disliked right off about the new camera was how sunlight looked though the viewfinder. I’ll have to dive into that later, in another blog post. For landscape photography, I’d reach for a DSLR first.

These two photos are just experiment photos. I didn’t take the time to set up the camera on a tripod and adjust the shutter speed for the proper silky water effect. There were too many other things to figure out. But it was a beautiful day and perfect time of year for photos!

I wasn’t able to figure everything out that day, but eventually I was able to get to a point where I could actually use the camera to do what I wanted it to do . . . even landscape photos with silky water.

Autumn Run
Muddy Creek Falls Trail, Swallow Falls State Park, Maryland
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