A New LCD Screen

I've had my best camera for approximately four years... wow, has it been four years already? The first summer that I used this camera, my sunblock ruined my LCD screen on the back of the camera. My nose is always in contact with the LCD screen whenever I use my viewfinder so it was impossible to avoid getting sunblock on my camera. Over time, this completely ruined my LCD screen on this particular camera and, after years of sunblock getting on the LCD screen, it has been getting difficult to see detail on my LCD screen. I was at a point where I needed to address this issue.

I've been toying with the idea of sending this camera body in for repair but I haven't wanted to wait the usual two to six weeks for the camera to be back in my hands. I have another camera body with a slightly smaller sensor but this camera body is my overall favorite because of its large sensor. I just couldn't send it in for repair while it was still in working condition.

I recently found that a lot of other photographers have fixed their own cameras suffering from this same problem so I figured I could do it too. If they could do it, I could do it.

What was damaged was the manufacturer's extra-heavy duty LCD protector. It wasn't actually the LCD itself that was damaged as I had assumed. This was good news! That being said, removing the manufacturer's original LCD protector is difficult and a bit time consuming but I was determined to get my LCD looking brand new again. 

Peeling the old protector off the LCD was indeed difficult. After carefully lifting a corner of the screen protector with an X-Acto knife, I actually needed to dig out my needle-nose pliers to slowly and carefully peel it off. I grabbed the corner of the screen protector and then slowly rotated the pliers, wrapping the protector around the needle-nose pliers. 

Once removed, I had a mess of sticky glue around the edges of the LCD screen and in the middle of the actual LCD screen that was under this protector. I first tried an LCD wipe... that just made a mess and didn't seem to have any effect on the glue. Then I carefully used a slightly dampened lens cloth with a tiny drop of dish detergent... wiped... wiped... wiped... Then I used a Q-tip dampened with a lens cleaning solution to get the remaining glue out of the crevices around the edge of the LCD display... went through about eight Q-tips... This required almost an hour of elbow grease but the LCD came out perfectly clean and pristine in the end. 

Then I ordered the new Sony replacement part from Amazon (an improved part, apparently)... waited a couple of days for it to arrive... and, this morning, I installed the new Sony part to cover and protect my LCD screen. 

My Sony a7 looks brand new again and that is a really nice feeling!