Well, I dropped my camera in the sand (long story short - the quick
release plate was not locked properly). It was quite late at night and the
sand was somewhat moist, so it stuck everywhere. It was not a pretty
sight.
Most sand was on the top plate and the lens which was the way it fell. I
cleaned it up as well as I could and kept using the camera, without
noticing any problems with the body then or afterwards. The 50/1.8 was a
different story however, the same night I noticed that a grain of sand had
apparently made it's way under the focusing ring as there was a grinding
sound when turning it near the infinity setting. A nastier surprise was in
store for the next morning. I was in the woods and at one point noticed
that the viewfinder seemed oddly dim. After blaming my eyesight and then
the polarizer, I finally realised that the diaphragm was stuck. I took the
lens off and pushed the DOF preview button, more unpleasant grinding
sounds. However after some turning of the aperture ring and more fiddling
with the DOF preview, everything seemed to return to normal, except
perhaps the aperture returning to open position was slightly sluggish.
I'm not too concerned about the 50/1.8, but I'm wondering how likely
is it that some sand made it inside the camera anyway, got between the
moving parts and is now doing damage gradually and undetectably. Nothing
could be seen in the areas that are meant to be accessed by the user, the
mirror box and the back - except some pollen in the latter, which
undoubtedly got there from an earlier trip to the woods. Any thoughts?
priit.
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