In article <4ac859$gl2@news.gdi.net>, mholme19@gdi.net says...
>I am curious as to how one goes about cleaning a camera mirror. I read >on Dust-off cans that you should not use their product to clean >mirrors. I've been told by camera stores to send it back to the >manufacturer. I change lenses a lot and I continually get dust on the >mirror (little black spots showing up in the viewfinder). Can I safely >clean this myself? It doesn't affect the image of course, but it is >annoying to look through. Any suggestions, methods?

The black spots you see in the viewfinder are on the viewing screen,
and not the mirror (spots on the mirror would be too out-of-focus to see). One should not blow into an SLR with the mirror down, since to
do so is likely to blow dust up into the viewing screen area (put
the camera on "B" and hold the shutter release in while blowing low pressure air [preferably with a hand bulb instead of that environmentally terrible {regardless of what the label on the can
says} "canned air" stuff] into the camera to clean dust out of the mirror box area). If the screen is not user removable, cleaning it
is a job for a repair person. If you want to clean a little dust off
the mirror, my advice is: DON'T, just leave it. If you want to clean
a lot of dust or a fingerprint off the mirror, breath gently up into
the camera (with the opening aimed down) and LIGHTLY twirl and move
CLEAN, FRESH Q-Tips over the surface of the mirror until it is clean.
Be aware that you will likely add a few very light scratches to the
front-surfaced mirror, so do not do it often. (BTW, changing the
mirror, at least in Nikons, is a relatively easy and inexpensive
process.) When I (often) change lenses, I hold the open camera face
down most of the time when it is open, change lenses with dispatch,
keep the lens rears clean, and avoid changing lenses in windy
locations - this keeps my v.f.'s clean through years of use.
Hope this helps.