Nikon F Eye Level VF Question

<p>Has anyone ever taken one apart? I have one with a broken (missing) eye piece lens. The VF is unusable w/o this glass. I'm wondering if I can cannibalize an old metered finder for this lens? These are available cheap. An eye level VF costs $250. Any ideas?</p>

<p>Consult one Sover Wong. He knows all. I don't remember if he's on photo.net but Nikon MF Collectors list on Yahoo is one way to find him. </p>

<p>The eye level viewfinder is very straight-forward to take apart. You have to peel off the top leatherette, and it reveals four screws. Take them off, and you'll see the prism. You'll see the screws and all of them are reasonably accessible. Some areas are covered in foam, but due to age, some of the foam may have degraded into a sticky gunk.<br>

I can't remember if the eyelens for the Photomics is the same as the eye level finder. Probably is. <br>

I often found a lot of range in price of eye level finders, due to condition. And remember that there were variants of the eyepiece housing, some round, some rectangular.</p>

<p>regards<br>

Vick</p>

<p>As others have said, the finders are easy to take apart. But no Photomic finders use a square eyepiece, so you can only hope for replacement that way if your current finder is the late round eyepiece version. </p>

<p>I had the same problem: rectangular eyepiece plain prism, the eyepiece optic delaminated.<br>

I called Authorized Photo Service - the Midwest USA Nikon service center in the past, now independent.<br>

They have new old stock replacement eyepiece optics. I had them clean out the prism and CLA the camera while I was at it. <br>

Everything came out beautifully.</p>

<p>This was done in the summer of 2012. I should add that what they found was that the eyepiece optic had delaminated some time ago, but somebody had tried to glue it back together with superglue.</p>

<p>Authorized Photo Service: http://nikoncamerarepair.com/<br>

Ask for John - he owns the place.</p>

<p>This one isn't "delaminated, it's broken and missing.Thanks Robert, yours might be the answer!</p>

<p>Steve, did you get my email? I mailed you about a possible cheap F with a plain finder, not wanting to post it here in case someone else wanted it first. Of course it may have been sold by now anyway, but if you did not get the email please let me know.</p>