F3 Screen in F4--It Works!

<p>Just tried this. Bought a 'P' type screen for F3, took it out of the frame and installed it in an F4 screen frame. (Damn little screws...) Put it in the F4, mounted several different lenses. Infinity focus is dead-on; focus at shorter distances agrees with the 'green dot' electronic rangefinder exactly. I had read so much on the Internet about how this wouldn't work, and some about how it would, so I risked ten dollars and tried it. Consider that a new 'P' screen for the F4 costs about USD 100 or more on eBay or other sites. It is SO nice to have a split image and a microprism focusing aid! Exposure seems perfect as well without any compensation. </p>

<p>That's good to know.</p>

<p>Now the screens for the F3 will start going up in price.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Yes, but don't turn the camera upside down without a viewfinder attached.<br /> Christoph</p>

<p>OF COURSE IT WORKS. You did the correct method, which is Removing the screen assembly from the frame. BUT your title will continue to mislead people who think you can exchange them *in frame*, which will not work without focussing errors.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>"Now the screens for the F3 will start going up in price."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That's OK. Just swap screens for the F2 into an F3 frame ;-)</p>

<p>I haven't been concerned about my F4 focusing screen much but since this is such a cheap experiment, I ordered an F3 Type P screen on eBay for $9.99.</p>

<p>Thanks for the tip on this one. I received my $9.99 F3 Type P screen from eBay and made the frame swap today. I've been a dedicated Type E grid screen user for years and this P screen still provides a couple lines for alignment. The diagonal split image is much more useful than a horizontal one, too.</p>

<p>Thanks for the tip, just tried it myself with a 50 F1.8 AF lens and manual lens, works great. </p>

Holy Thread Revival!

This is one of the bits of internet lore that prompted me to try it.

I snagged an F3 K screen for 12 currency units, fitted it to the F4 frame and it's, quite simply, perfect. Focus is spot-on with the Nikon green spot and aligns perfectly with lens markings. Still got to shoot a roll with it, though.

On 7/6/2023 at 7:52 AM, Farside said:

Holy Thread Revival!

This is one of the bits of internet lore that prompted me to try it.

I snagged an F3 K screen for 12 currency units, fitted it to the F4 frame and it's, quite simply, perfect. Focus is spot-on with the Nikon green spot and aligns perfectly with lens markings. Still got to shoot a roll with it, though.

Is it worth it? What would you say are the notable benefits? 
I think the F3 screen would be darker than the F4 E screen...

Thinking of doing this myself!

Edited April 8 by nic_olas

14 hours ago, nic_olas said:

Is it worth it? What would you say are the notable benefits? 
I think the F3 screen would be darker than the F4 E screen...

There are (usually) no inherent "benefits", as the F4 screens tend to be brighter to begin with (although some of the later F3 screens were updated to roughly F4 performance).

The primary reason people do this switcheroo is the scarcity of dedicated F4 screens: for some of the more desirable configurations, it is (or was) much easier and less expensive to obtain the F3 version and swap the frames with a more commonplace F4 screen. Some of us Nikon veterans did the same thing in reverse earlier on:  we'd swap a newer slightly brighter F3 screen into our older F/F2 frames.

All bets are off with some of the really scarce configurations like the focal-length-specific all-microprism screens: these are way more available in F/F2 guise so you'd cannibalize one of those to transfer to your F3 or F4 frame.

Edited April 8 by orsetto