Photo How To

One overlooked, so to speak, area of your camera that can get dirty is the viewfinder. Whether it's an optical viewfinder on a DSLR or an EVF on a mirrorless camera, that eye-sized window is prone to smudging, which can make it hard to see your subject.

So, what's the proper way to clean a dirty camera viewfinder? Mike Smith, aka Boxhead Mike, shows you below in the quick and easy tutorial.

"Now this part of the camera can get really dirty, really quickly," Smith says. "So today I'm going to show you an easy way to get to it and get all of the dirt out of that viewfinder. It's important to have a clean viewfinder to see what's going on with your photographs, especially on a bright sunny day."

First, he shows you the way he used to clean the camera viewfinder, which is probably the method most of us use: wrap a lens cloth around a finger and gently rub the viewfinder. The problem with that approach is that it ends up cleaning just the center of the viewfinder and doesn't do a very good job.

"I end up just pushing the dirt around in there a little bit," Smith notes. "However, I've recently found a much better way to do it and much easier way to do it. You will need a lens blower and then you'll need one of these ear cleaners or Q-tips, and a lens cloth as well."

Watch below as Smith demonstrates his better method for cleaning a camera viewfinder and then get to work on the one on your own camera. If you haven't tried his cleaning technique before, your viewfinder is probably filthy!