Third-person view

Third person view is a viewpoint from outside of the player in which the camera does not film/capture/pan from the player's eye level, but instead films/captures/pans from behind the player at an angle of 0.0 degrees and from the front of the player at 180.0 degrees (Y axis) when the mouse is leveled with the ground. Third person view can be activated by pressing F5. Pressing F5 once, twice, and three times gives you the vantage point from behind the player, in front of the player, and at normal eye level, respectively. The feature was introduced in Indev versions. It can be used for viewing the player, making videos, and other uses.

History
When Indev 0.31 was introduced, Notch made the new inventory, and when it was open, you could not see the player, just a black square. this was changed in Indev February 18, so that the player can be seen there.

In Alpha 1.0.14, pressing F5 gave you a strange camera position in third person, where the camera would be off-centre by one block to the left; this was later fixed in Alpha 1.0.15.

In the Halloween Update (Alpha 1.2.0) a new feature was added, where holding F1 down hides the HUD, as well as meaning that pressing F5 and then holding F1 would move the view to the front of the player and hide the HUD. This feature was removed in Beta 1.3 (Or Beta 1.2?)

As of Minecraft 1.0, pressing F5 twice switches the camera to a face view, pressing F5 three times switches it back into first person view.
 * In 1.9pre5 the view could be manipulated with H Y N M J K L I U O (Need key icon labels...) and pressing F9 would freeze the view; if the Player were to go in a 1*2*1 hole and press F5 and F9, then the player could see underground structures. (this was a test feature, and was removed for pre6)

Trivia

 * A third person face view can be seen while the player's inventory is open.

Gallery
Screenshots of third person.