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Finally! Turning GF1 LCD off permanently

T

tanvach

Guest
Hi all,

After a whole year of frustration, I finally found a way to turn the LCD on the GF1 permanently, even after a power cycle. It's a little bit of a hack but it's very easy to do.

If I shoot with an optical view finder, I usually have to press the Disp button twice to turn the display off, since I find the glare very distracting (especially at night). What I've found is that with an EVF, there's an option to turn the display off, so after a few tries, it turns out the camera looks for the EVF by checking a pin in the accessories port. More over, the button on the EVF is mapped to another pin. Pulling these pin low (i.e. shorting them to ground) fools the camera into thinking the EVF is attached and the button pressed, hence turning the display off!

What I've done is to fold a piece of aluminium foil a few times, and push it inside the accessories port. I need to wiggle the 'plug' a few time and the display will turn off automatically. A piece of black tape and the hack is completed!

I've attached a photo of the foil pushed into the port, rudimentary but it works pretty well.

A couple of caveats : the foil will likely short the data pins that suppose to go to the EVF, which might lessen the life of the port. Also, you might short the power supply to the EVF, lessening the battery life. So be careful, it's been working for me for a day now, YMMV.

The problem is that you won't be able to access the LCD display at all, i.e. no picture viewing. Again, this is fine for me, I take the plug off after taking photos. I'm working on a more permanent solution.

In the mean time, I'm just glad I can turn the damn LCD off!

 
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