Dusty/dirty sensor/mirror?

[Steelo]

Today whilst out and about, I was swapping lenses, and got a bit of dirt in the body, which could be seen when looking through the viewfinder, but not in pictures (it looked to be quite a large piece in the viewfinder) so I got my blower out my bag and gave it a quick "clean" only to find it has blown more dirt/small hairs onto it.

Will this dirt be on the sensor? As there is nothing in my images at all. Maybe its on the mirror? What's the best way to clean this as blowing it has not made any difference.

Also the dots for focusing/point of focus in the viewfinder, used to be really red, but now I can barely see them at all.

Please help

Oh it's a Canon 450d if that makes any difference.

 

[squishy]

Sounds like the dirt is on the focus screen? There are videos on youtube of how to clean focus screens (and get it out of the body in the first place).

 

[Steelo]

Thanks. I just watched some on cleaning the sensor on youtube, I shall have a look for focus screens now.

 

[Bythesea]

As there's nothing on the images it can't be on the sensor - sounds as though it is on the focussing screen. If it has got underneath then you will need to remove it to clean it, but as long as you are careful it isn't a problem.