Hi there.

From an italian FORUM dedicated to video professional I have found two peoples here in Italy with the handstrap support broken, as you can see from the attached image

Anyone of you have experienced this nightmare? Do you agree with me this is a SERIOUS issue?
Bye

Yes it is very serious. It is an obvious design flaw that the strap attachment point is so flimsy. Not sure what needs to be replaced in order to repair this, but I expect it is quite expensive. Think I should stick some gaffer tape over mine to cushion it a bit in case of any knocks.

Richard

It is absolutely necessary to use both hands and to loose a bit the handstrap. Use the neckstrap should be a good insurance. If possible, it is better using a shoulder support or a steadicam rig.

My cam is off and on a tripod all the time, so I don't even have the neckstrap fitted because it just gets in the way. If the attachment broke it would be a disaster for sure.

Richard

Don't need to go to Italy to find this, it's right here on DVinfo.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/canon-xh-series-hdv-camcorders/125680-critical-grip-belt-broken.html

Is it serious?

Guess it would be if it happened whilst using it single handed, not a particularly smart way of using it.

Is it a "design flaw"?

Suppose it depends how you define the term. My understanding is that any component is designed not to fail in 99.99 % of units in a three year period from manufacture.

Given the number of XH units out there in the big wide world, the length of time they've been out there and the fact that I have only seen 2 documented cases of this item failing, I would have to conclude - no.

Of course, it is possible it's more common than reported here on DVinfo, but there's one heck of a lot of XH' ers here (I happen to be one of them) and if it was a weekly occurence someone would have raised the alarm long ago.

Don't panic and don't use it single handed.


CS

Hi Chris. Maybe design weakness is a more accurate term. Definitely it could be more robust than this.

I've done a lot of work in the design field and in product reliability over the years and have never come across the 99.99% in 3 years criterion before. Mind sharing where you get this from? There are many products out there that would not meet this.

Richard

If you're worried about knocking or bumping it, put a blank XLR mic plug in CH2 to protect it.

Cheers.

From memory (and mine is NOT to be relied on) it came from an exceedingly large and to many, utterly inpenetrable, text book on the subject of product reliability, how to achieve it, measure it and predict it.

No idea who wrote it or when but for reasons that quite possibly mark me out as a prime candidate for "Geek of the Month", I found utterly riveting.

Amongst many, many other things, it explained how a manufacturer can, pretty accurately, assign a MTBF (mean time before failure) to something like a pc hard drive or, in fact, anything manufactured.

To answer your specific question however: I don't know why that 99.99% figure stuck in my mind, it just did and it's quite possible it relates to a specific manufacturer or product or case highlighted within the text for demonstration purposes.

I suppose the bottom line from the book was this:

No matter how well you design every component in a product, there will be random failures in an extremely small percentage that are at the extreme low end of their expected life that result in premature failure of the entire product.

As for products that do not meet the 99.99% criteria?

Guess the official description is "junk".


CS

If you don't want to trust a glue job, you still have some plastic left on the camera to work with. Use a fine drill bit, drill a hole through the top plastic part left sticking out, and another through the bottom plastic sticking out, run a single strand wire (the kind you hang pictures with) through the holes and loop it through the hand grip. May last forever, may not.

Drill the holes as close to the camera body as possible!

Do you agree with me this is a SERIOUS issue?

Never understood why Canon made that strap support out of flimsy plastic, this should not break, period. There is no excuse for it. That strap support is for handycam type of camera's on of the most stressed parts and should be made of strong materials. It should be a part of the camera internal case and not a part of the external plastic casing.

Another possible fix--if you look under the pod where the XLR inputs are, looks like there may be enough gap to slip a black cable tie through to re-secure the hand strap, assuming it won't interfere with the iris ring usage.

I just found this forum doing a google search for broken XH A1 strap mount. Howdy, Has anyone tried to send this back to Canon yet for a fix? Mine got snapped taking it out of the bag this weekend. I'm pretty meticulous with my gear and pretty surprised this broke.

Very poor show on the A1, I leave a dummy XLR plug in CH2 as a buffer.

I noticed Canon have redesigned it on the A1S.

Had a thought, wonder if it's worthwhile coating that A1 fixture in super glue as a sort of
shock absorber...?

Cheers.