Like most complete idiots, I took my Casio Exilim EX-S500 to our company christmas party in County Hall, on the south bank, London. There, I felt the need to keep it in my pocket whilst I enjoyed the Dodgem cars.
Like most cameras would, it smashed into tiny pieces.
The lucky part was that only the screen broke, or in fact, only the LCD panel part of the screen broke. The electro luminescent panel (ELP) was unscathed, as was the plastic cover and housing for the rest of the camera. So, I scoured ebay for another broken S500 with a working LCD screen.
A good ebay search for this is "Casio Exilim S500 Spares or Repairs". There weren't really any, so I searched models which (with a little examination) were known to use the same screen. I bid on, and won a Casio Exilim S600 which was very battered, and had a broken focussing mechanism. Good screen though!
As soon as it arrived, I turned it on to check the screen, and then set upon taking it to pieces to get the screen out.
The steps involved in this are, from memory:
1. Unscrew all the tiny screws at the bottom, the one connected to the strap, and the one on the opposite side from the strap.
2. Pop the back plate off. Careful of that screen!
3. Use a screwdriver to prize the LCD/Backlight housing off the inside metal plate which covers the back of the camera. Use a very slim screwdriver or something very flat - it's strong adhesive and it bends quite worryingly.
4. Flip the camera over and carefully remove the front plate on the lens side. The camera is now sort of bendy in the middle.
5. Locate the backlight power cables (one black, one white) and de-solder them from the board.
6. Pull the black and white cables through to the other side and move the screen aside.
You should now have something a bit like this (actually I took the screen alone off in this photo but you are best removing the entire housing):
Like most cameras would, it smashed into tiny pieces.
The lucky part was that only the screen broke, or in fact, only the LCD panel part of the screen broke. The electro luminescent panel (ELP) was unscathed, as was the plastic cover and housing for the rest of the camera. So, I scoured ebay for another broken S500 with a working LCD screen.
A good ebay search for this is "Casio Exilim S500 Spares or Repairs". There weren't really any, so I searched models which (with a little examination) were known to use the same screen. I bid on, and won a Casio Exilim S600 which was very battered, and had a broken focussing mechanism. Good screen though!
As soon as it arrived, I turned it on to check the screen, and then set upon taking it to pieces to get the screen out.
The steps involved in this are, from memory:
1. Unscrew all the tiny screws at the bottom, the one connected to the strap, and the one on the opposite side from the strap.
2. Pop the back plate off. Careful of that screen!
3. Use a screwdriver to prize the LCD/Backlight housing off the inside metal plate which covers the back of the camera. Use a very slim screwdriver or something very flat - it's strong adhesive and it bends quite worryingly.
4. Flip the camera over and carefully remove the front plate on the lens side. The camera is now sort of bendy in the middle.
5. Locate the backlight power cables (one black, one white) and de-solder them from the board.
6. Pull the black and white cables through to the other side and move the screen aside.
You should now have something a bit like this (actually I took the screen alone off in this photo but you are best removing the entire housing):
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Signing UpStep 1: Removing the battery compartment.
See the picture below? It's the bit which covers the battery and SD card. Open it.
It needs to come off.
See the tiny screw?
It's smaller than you could ever imagine. There's a pretty duff photo of it below too, compared to one of the other screws (which are also quite small!)
Unscrew it carefully. When it comes undone the grey plastic module will just fall off.
It needs to come off.
See the tiny screw?
It's smaller than you could ever imagine. There's a pretty duff photo of it below too, compared to one of the other screws (which are also quite small!)
Unscrew it carefully. When it comes undone the grey plastic module will just fall off.
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I recently replaced the LCD of a Casio Exilim EX-Z1000
It took 2 hours and here are the steps I followed
===Prep===
Never work on a camera in a carpeted room as small screws inevitably drop and they will never be found.
Clear a large, clean table with a high-intensity lamp
Get a piece of paper and pen and write down every step so that you can reverse them to reassemble
Draw a diagram of the front and back of the camera and write down every screw that is removed and note its location.
Inspect every screw as it comes out and compare it to the others.
There are typically 3 different kinds of screws: short fine machine thread, longer fine machine thread, and coarse plastic threads.
At first glance they all look the same, and the differences are subtle.
The EX-Z1000 does not hav the short fine thread but has the other 2
===Tools===
camera screwdriver
plastic pry tool
hemostat
dental picks
===Legend===
BLT/B - back left top/bottom
BRT/B - back right top/bottom
BCT/B - back center top/bottom
RT/C/B - right top/center/bottom (from back)
LT/C/B - left top/center/bottom (from back)
FLT/B - front left top/bottom
FRT/B - front right top/bottom
FCT/B - front center top/bottom
TL/R - top left/right (from back)
XL/R - bottom left/right (from back)
===Procedure===
Remove Back Cover (Screws 1-5)
Remove Back by sliding pry tool along left side
These cases snap together, and if you pry using force then you will rip the snaps off
It takes a lot of patience to get the hang of it.
Slide the tool along the edge pressing in and as you encounter snaps they should unhook
TR plastic bracket - may have some adhesive tape, pry gently to see
Remove front cover (Screws 6-9)
(i didn't take good notes here so don't have locations)
pry left side
Remove right side bracket (Screws 10-11)
Ready to remove LCD
LCD and backlight are held together with tabs on their brackets, don't pry them apart.
There's a bit of adhesive that holds them down, carefully pry them from the body from the left side
Follow the ribbon cable and see that it folds under from the bottom
then threads under the bracket on the right into a connector on the front.
Remove foam tape from ribbon connector
Carefully pry up black plastic from connector to release ribbon cable
Once released, ribbon cable easily slides out from connector
Separate LCD from backlight
Carefully separate LCD from backlight by springing the bracket snaps with a dental pick.
Be careful of backlight wires as they are still attached to the body.
Replace broken LCD with new one and snap to backlight frame
Note that my replacement unit (#2621) was slightly different than the one it replaced (#262).
Cable was longer and ribbon connector paths were different, but it still worked.
Install new LCD
Thread ribbon cable through right bracket and around to front connector.
Insert ribbon into connector and carefully press locking bar down
Replace foam tape.
Reassemble case
Replace right bracket (screws 10-11)
Align buttons on top with holes
Replace front (screws 6-9)
Replace Back (screws 1-5)
right side first, then strap and TR corner,
align top clips, top plastic piece
press down and snap together
this is a trick step because you are trying to keep TR corner, strap and top aligned
===Screw Order===
--Back Cover
1 XCB - coarse
2 XL - fine
3 RB - fine
4 RT - fine
5 TL - fine
--Front Cover
6 XCF - coarse
7 TL - fine
8 LC - fine
9 BTL - fine
--Right Side Bracket
10 RB - coarse
11 RT - fine
I bought my screen from there and used the directions from above. It was a snap.