Canon eyepiece covers

[skwinty (Steve)]

Do any of you guys use the rubber eyepiece cover when taking photographs and not looking through the eyepiece.
According to the manual, light can enter the system through the eyepiece and upset the exposure.
I have found a strange blue spot on my darks and am wondering if this could be the cause or is live view causing the problem.
I have been using live view quite frequently but am starting to reconsider the practice. Will test this theory later this evening, just wondering if any one else has had similar experiences

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

I don't use it because it's a pita to get on and off, but I'll need to consider it or some other way of covering the viewfinder. I use my red headlight to look at the counter and I've noticed in the shots that I do this to, I'll often end up with a pretty horrendous gradient in the image. It only just dawned on me the other night where it was coming from. Where I used to live has some pretty strong directional light sources and I always blamed them. Now I've moved to a site where the nearest light source (other than my own house) is about 200meters away and I'm still getting the gradient. I think I've only got myself to blame

[citivolus (Ric)]

Shoot a dark frame in a lit room, and see if there is light on it. I found with one of my older DSLRs that there was no light leak, but others I have tested did leak.

[Terry B]

I always use it. It is connected to the strap and I just leave it on. I never look through the finder when imaging so you only have to put it on once and forget it.
Not sure if it is needed really but simple to do rather than ruin a long exposure.

[RB (Andrew)]

Yes you need to keep stray light from entering the viewfinder when exposing or you'll get stray light getting in.

I use the cap or if I'm using the right angle viewfinder I cover that too.