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; it was fixed in the Indev February 18 update.

Back in Alpha version 1.0.14, pressing F5 gave you a strange camera position in third person; it was later fixed in Alpha 1.0.15.

In the Halloween Update (Alpha 1.2.0) a new feature was introduced, when holding F1 down it hides the HUD, that means pressing F5 and then holding F1 would move the view to the front and hide the HUD, it was removed in 1.3 and now the F1 key now toggles and doesn't show the player's face.

Starting from the Beta 1.9 Pre-releases, pressing F5 twice switches the camera to a face view, pressing F5 three times switches it back into first person view.

Bugs

 * In 1.9 pre5, if pressing F5 and F9 while the camera is in a block, it will act as cave/dungeon finder.

Trivia

 * A third person face view can be seen while the Player's inventory is open.
 * In 1.9 pre5 Mojang added a debug feature allowing you to lock the camera.

Gallery
Screenshots of third person.