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SX740 new owner: attaching wrist strap?

Craggy
Contributor

My new Canon SX740 arrived this morning from the photographic dealer.

I have therefore been a Canon user for the past 3 hours. Or rather, a non-user. And a distinctly unimpressed non-user at that.

The problem is that Canon seems utterly unable (or unwilling) to design a sensible arrangement via which the wrist strap can be affixed to the camera body. And of course, without the wrist strap in place, no camera: the SX740 cannot sensibly be used without the safety and ecureity of a wrist strap. (Wonderful, not, especially as we're going on holiday tomorrow and have been looking forward to taking this camera with us.)

 

The user manual is markedly coy as to how to go about feeding soft thread into and under and out of a hard metal 2-slot anchorage arrangement. As if Canon knows the user is going to have a problem, so the less said about it the better, and hopefully the customer will manage. . . somehow. Or not.

 

My wife and I have had many cameras from many different manufacturers in 50 years of picture taking and this is the worst example of trashy design and engineering we've ever encountered.

Ye gods, if Canon can't even design a simple, functional wrist strap anchorage, what hope is there of the company designing and engineering anyhthing else of greater quality?

Having now just spent £GBP350 (here in the UK) on purchasing this camera, I shouldn't have to be spending-- literally -- hours, trying to make the **bleep** thing usable. The Canon wrist strap should've been easily able to attach securely to the Canon camera in a matter of minutes.

If anyone has any practical advice to offer, that'd be appreciated.

All my wife and I have been able to find on the Internet is a recommendation to use something like a, uh, fishing line to tug the wrist strap's loop through the body slots.

A fishing line?

Amazingly enough, I never thought of ordering one of those when ordering the camera. I suppose it's my fault or being so myopic about these matters. I didn't order a pair of thigh-high waders either but if that's what is necessarily required to      own a Canon SX740, I guess I'd better take up fishing.

1 REPLY 1

Craggy
Contributor

I'm replying to my own OP in hope of saving other members here the time and trouble of responding.

 

Turns out, my wife and I have been at fault here.

 

If we had not followed Canon's instructions, no such difficulty would've been encountered. Thoe instructions, visual though thyey are, stipulate that the soft loop be pushed into the lower 'slot' on the camer body's side andthen pushed upwards, under the cross bar and out the tp slot. The illustration shows exactly that.

 

Thankfully, my wife decided that the instructions were absurd and should-- in our case -- be ignored. After so many wearisome repeated failed attempts to thread the wrist strap loop in and upwards from the lower slot, she shoved the loop into the upper slot and waggled it downwards -- and using a simple hair clip, was able to  grab the loop and drag it out the lower slot, after which she then slid the whole of the main strap through the loop and pulled it tight.

 

Job done. FINALLY. Camera useable, at last. None of this farrago would've been necessary had Canon manufactured something rather better than a bodyside cavity bridged by a bar to create two slots, instead of providing proper eyelets which, though by no means as aeshetically pleasing, would've been pleasing to Canon customers stuck with a time-wasting riddle.

 

How this sort of nonsense gets through Quality Control baffles me. I've now been able to experiment a little with the camera and, thus far, am impressed.

 

Apologies to everyone here for taking up column space with this newbie lament.

 

 

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