My ratched up old LCD protector

On my trip out of the province I did a dumb thing, I left my 30d in a loose bag without compartments and forgot that I also had a lens rolling about inside as I walked around for hours. The result was a very scratched up LCD screen.

Canon, in its infinite wisdom, doesn't allow idiots like me to damage the actual LCD, instead they have a piece of hard plastic between the actual LCD and things like loose lenses. So if you scratch it up like I did, all you have to do is replace the screen protector.

Now, you can send it to Canon or an authorized repair center in which case they will charge you $55 for parts and labour or you can order the parts yourself. Here's what I did.

**This will invalidate your warranty, by the way. I am merely telling you what I did, not advising you anything. Follow this at your own risk.**

1) Call Canon parts department:
1-888-832-4719 (in Canada)

2) Ask them for the LCD Window protector and whatever is used to stick it to the Canon.

They might know what you are talking about or they might fax you a nice diagram with parts numbers
and proper names. What you want are:

Window, TFT Display: CB3-2995-000 000 -- $17.28
TAPE, DOUBLE SIDE: CB3-3104-000 000 -- $2.16

After taking your credit card they will send you through normal mail these nice labelled parts.

Removing the screen

I took the advice of someone on Dpreview.com forums who did the same thing for their 20D for the following steps.

1) Get a suction cup, one of those you might use to hang things in your shower or window.

2) Stick the suction cup onto the LCD protector to be removed, get a good suction and use gradual pressure to pull the window off.

It took me a couple tries and it popped off revealing the bare LCD, some tape residue.

3) The tricky part is now that you have the old one off, you need to put the new tape on. It is very fragile and being double-sided tape will stick to everything like your fingers. I used tweezers to help and got enough of the tape back into the grooves where the window would settle in for it to stick.

The double-sided tape

4) Use a blower on the bare LCD for any dust that might have settled on the screen

5) Make sure that you do not put any finger prints or get any residue on the inside of the *new* LCD protector. Handle it by its edges, put it down on top of the new double-sided tape. Push carefully, making sure it is flush to the body.

Voila, new LCD protector!