Nikon F3 users

[colyn]

How true would you say this statement from the Nikon owners manual is?

"Although the Nikon F3 employs the highest quality LCD, it deteriorates in contrast and becomes difficult to see after six or seven years. When this happens, please contact your dealer or the Nikon service facility nearest you for replacement of this element at a small charge."

I have a F3 which I have owned 8-10 years and the LCD is still bright and easy to see.

 

[Mudman]

I have an F3 that was used professionally by the local paper from 1981 to 1990. It's LCD screen is still fine.

 

[photomoof]

They were using a crystal ball that was not accurate.

 

[colyn]

I have heard through the years that Nikon was not even sure how long this LCD would last since the technology was still fairly new.

I had never heard this till today when I downloaded a .pdf of the manual and was going through it..

 

[Robert Lai]

My F3 still had the original LCD panel for over 28 years. It was still fine when I sold the camera.

 

[Wulfthari]

I think there's somthing similar in the Canon T90 manual and I've seen that some LCD that leaked in Minoltas of the same era.

 

[JP Owens]

I have two well used F3's here, and the LCD's are fine in both of them.

I have seen degraded T90 LCD's, though.

 

[Timmyjoe]

My LCD is still good on my F3HP, but I remember a few years ago when I was looking for the camera, people told me to be careful because they supposedly had experience with F3's with bad LCD's. Never seen one though myself.

 

[jim_jm]

Nikon was probably being over-cautious, not sure what the lifespan would be in real-world use.

I have a well-used F3HP (Oct '83) with an LCD which began fading several years ago, It's very difficult to see now, even with fresh batteries. Another F3 body from Mar '84 which is almost mint, has no such problems.

So I guess the LCDs can fade, just no way to predict when or why.

 

[crsantin]

Lcd bleed or fade is pretty normal for cameras using this old technology. I dont have an F3 but I do use a couple of Contax G1 bodies which also have lcd displays. Both work fine but the lcd bleed issue, or simply not working at all, is pretty common to these models as well. Seems to be a real crap shoot as to when the lcd will stop working. Can these lcds be repaired today? Might be more than the value of the camera but if you really wanted to continue using the camera it might be a worthwhile repair?

 

[FrankS]

Could continue to use camera in aperture preferred auto mode and not know the camera selected speed, or in manual mode using an external meter.

 

[gb hill]

I had a Minolta Maxxum that leaked like crazy. The one on my Canon T70 is perfect.

 

[nikon_sam]

Not sure of the ages of the two F3's I have since I've had them just a short time...
#14053XX The LED's still look great...they're dark and sharp...
#12688XX The LED's are bright and for the most part totally readable but the bottom half of the 1 in 125 or 1000 is very dim...you can see it but compared to the rest there is a difference...
Both cameras are totally usable...

 

[wakarimasen]

Does anyone know if the viewfinder light can be repaired?

 

[Vincent.G]

My F3/T LCD is still working fine!

 

[rbsinto]

How true would you say this statement from the Nikon owners manual is?

"Although the Nikon F3 employs the highest quality LCD, it deteriorates in contrast and becomes difficult to see after six or seven years. When this happens, please contact your dealer or the Nikon service facility nearest you for replacement of this element at a small charge."

I have a F3 which I have owned 8-10 years and the LCD is still bright and easy to see.

True with respect to some user's cameras, and false with respect to others.
I currently have two F3s with three prisms between them: Two DE-5s and a non-HP finder, and their LCDs are all readable.

 

[ronnies]

My F3 (1991 ish) LCD is fine but my F4 one is bleeding near the frame counter.

My F3 is newer than my F4 though. 🙂

RAS

 

[nobbylon]

I've had 5 F3's and one of them had a faded Lcd. It made it difficult to read the speed and every now and then would miss part of a digit. All the others were fine.

 

[Frontman]

I have no less than five F3 bodies, no LCD deterioration in any of them.

Wish I could say the same about my F4 bodies though, two of the three I have show bleeding in the LCD.