My cameras take a bit of abuse while out shooting concerts. The photo pits in front of the stage can be crowded and cramped. While making your way around other photographers, you camera may bounce off the crowd barrier, or smack into the stage itself. You can be careful all you want, but you're bound to get some bumps and bruises. I also like to use 2 Black Rapid camera straps fastened together similar to their Double Strap design. This allows me to carry 2 bodies by my side at the same time. This saves me from having to change lenses during my short time in front of the stage when I want to capture a different perspective of the show. The only downfall for using these straps is the LCD window rubs against my belt or scrapes against the rivets of my jeans.

I really don't care for those plastic LCD protectors, or those clear films you apply over the window. They seem to cause more glare while reviewing pictures in bright areas and sometimes make it harder to see image detail. I'm not really that anal about scuffs and scrapes on my equipment, but one of my bodies was in dire need of some TLC.

The rear screen window was scuffed pretty bad and discolored a bit due to a reaction of a cleaning solvent that spilled a while back. I was only able to see about 75% of the image. So I jumped online to the Sony parts store and ordered up a new LCD window and the adhesive strip. A few days later my trusty mailman delivered the goods. I grabbed an x-acto knife, rubbing alcohol, q-tips, hair dryer, a lint free cloth, and my A900 ready for a facelift. This is an easy process that can be done to most DSLR cameras.

Read on for a pictorial step by step.


Camera with bad LCD window. Its hard to capture the damage with a camera phone....

New parts ready to be applied

Warm the screen up a bit with a hair dryer. This softens the adhesive strip that holds the LCD window in place. Gently pry up a corner with the X-Acto knife and continue to lift while the window is still warm.

Once screen is old removed, clean up the remaining bits of the adhesive strip left behind. I scrape it off with my fingernail and then use a q-tip and rubbing alcohol to remove the remaining residue. The top section is now clean, the bottom and sides need to be cleaned still. I also use a lint free cloth to clean any dust and debris from the actual LCD screen.

Once clean, apply the new adhesive strip. Sony makes this process really easy. The thin strip is affixed to a larger piece of thin plastic. This makes for perfect positioning. You can see a small tab on the bottom right. This is used to pull the backing away from the adhesive strip once you put it in place.

Now pull off the protective film from the rear of the replacement LCD window, line up the bottom edge and press firmly into place. Once secured, remove the protective covering from the front of the LCD and admire your work.
 Now I have a nice clean screen again. Total cost was ~$25 and took less than 20 minutes for the whole process.
Could I just apply a screen protector and prevent this from happening again? Maybe. I'll have to check and see what's new out there.