Hi folks. I am looking at a D700 I am considering buying as a back up body but when I looked through the viewfinder I can see a number of dust specks in it. These don't show up on images so they are located somewhere other than the sensor.

Now I'm reluctant to buy it in this condition because a) it is a bit irritating b) the camera was described as "Mint-" and was priced accordingly c) I suspect this might be indicative of sloppy care of the camera by the previous owner. It has a very low shutter count and my older D700 hasn't a single speck!

Is this dust easily removed ( can we assume worst case scenario for the sake of argument ? )

I'd be most grateful for advice.

Wooster

Dust in the finder is no big deal. You can get dust up there literally in a minute, or it might take weeks. I've gotten dust onto one of my cameras in a single lens change. Usually you can get it out trivially with a rocket blower, but even if it's on top of the focusing screen that's an easy fix too. (Or it might be trapped between the eyepiece and the prism, although that's not common.)

The worst case scenario, which you asked about, is that they are scratches or blemishes on the pentaprism. This would be difficult and very expensive to address. I've never seen that - even in F and F2 where the prisms are removable - but it could happen.

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Brian... a bicoastal Nikonian and Team Member

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