Nikon F3: LCD Illuminator & Memory Button, Part 3
Transcript
A brighter front light
The next item on the agenda is to get this guy to light up a little bit brighter. You can kind of see it; in fact, it’s not too bad. I’m pushing in. It put a pretty good little dimple in [my finger] and there’s just no other way of doing it. I’ve tried a number of different things. What I’m going to do is pull that system off, take a look at it, and show you what I tend to do. I make them a little bit better, but great? No. A little bit better? Yes.
Remove the light component
These two screws here are going to come out. They don’t have to, but I like to. This is where it kind of can get a little bit tricky for people who haven’t done it before. Your flex is going to be very vulnerable to being torn. I can’t remember the last time I tore one because, despite what everybody says on the internet, these flexes are pretty dang strong. I know everybody says, “Oh they get old and they get brittle”. Not on this Nikon. I don’t tend to have a problem with them.
That’s upside down. You got two screws there. This is the tiny little screw. Don’t mix these screws up. That one is for plastic, and that one there goes into a metal plate. There’s the metal plate where it goes into and there’s a plastic where the other one goes into.
Remove the pad and clean the contacts
This funky little system here, which was never really great, uses this pad. Let’s see if I can get this pad out without totally losing it. There we go. So that little pad there someone has actually put a piece of metal on it. I don’t blame them; it works. So, there’s the little piece of metal, interesting. I’m going to keep that there. I tend not to put the metal plate on there. I tend to just go ahead and I clean the contacts and I just kind of scratch them up a little bit.
I don’t mind the metal plate. If you want to take the time to cut a little middle plate that’s perfectly that size, hey that’s up to you. Then what I want to do is use denatured alcohol again. Get down in there to clean anything out. Then what I do on [the pad] is clean both sides. Sometimes it’s tough to tell whether or not it flipped over or not. Clean the contact.
(I need to run and get something because I forgot to get it. Oh yeah, I have it here.)
Use contact enhancer
This obviously I’ve had around for eons. This is actually a contact enhancer. You can get it at most auto parts stores. It’s one of the few things I actually get from an auto parts store. I don’t buy real grease from auto parts stores, but this is a conductive grease. Use it very sparingly. You can see how old this [tube of grease] is.
I’ll go down there with a tiny little screwdriver. Take a small little blob, put some in there, and then put [the contact spacer] back in. The reason I’m not a big fan of the metal piece in there is because, honestly, there are electrical contacts there that, if [the contact spacer] just lays right across them, is a dead short. I’d just rather not put it in, I’d rather do it the way Nikon did it. The greatest in the world? No. I wish I could do this with LEDs. But, you know, I haven’t figured out a good diffuser for the LED, otherwise it’s very hot in one spot.
Reinstall the illuminator
Okay so this goes in. Before I put this in, this [metal plate] goes in. It’s got a hook on it. I don’t know if you can see it. I’ll turn it around; it’s got a hook. The hook goes just under and holds that down. I don’t want to turn this too much but hook just underneath there on the other side.
Alright this thing goes there; these things break all the time and rarely replace them. Nobody really complains about them. Don’t tighten this up too tight like I just did. And then this [screw] is non-magnetic, which is a pain in the butt. And voilá. I might come back later and replace that. To get this ccomponent back in, flex, get it where it’s bent, you can feed it down the side there. Don’t force it. Just work it in.
These front screws are non-magnetic either; let’s get this out of the way. See? [It takes] much less pressure [to turn the light on]. When done right, they work.
I just don’t like putting pieces of metal against metal contacts. That conductive grease is something everybody needs to have.
I’m just wondering why I would want to pull the front out of this thing. I don’t really need to, I could, but I don’t need to.
Clean and reinstall the button
This [button] always falls out. This is the plastic shaft [button], so it’s an early version button. I’m going to go ahead and clean this up. We will reinstall the button. What I did on the button is I actually squeeze the button a little bit. It is plastic and that will make it swell a little bit. But only down like from here to the end. You don’t want to do the whole shaft because it’s got to be smooth, so it can go up and down. Voilá — button in. It stays in; it’s not going to fall out.
I don’t know exactly where it needs to be crimped, but I’m being very gentle. What I don’t want to do is break it. There we go, I think I can go a little bit further. That’s enough to get my tweezers in there. I’ll go a little bit more until it’s all done, so it’s kind of like adjusting it.
Beautiful. Alright, so that [button is] in, ready to go.
Rehook the spring
I noticed a spring fell out. I don’t know why the spring fell out. The spring goes here, drives this lever back, which means it wasn’t hooked correctly if it fell out. I can’t get this. Good thing I can see it. One side wraps all the way around and tucks it.
Okay Thanks.