Dave,
I saw the OpTech fittings after I had rigged up my G12 with the split rings. The small OpTech fitting would do the same job as the smaller split ring, which was a bit of a bear to get threaded through the strap slot.
When I dropped the G9, Canon wanted $350 to fix it, so I didn't. To be fair to Canon, a few years ago they brought it back from the dead for no charge when it stopped working while still under warranty - they replaced just about all of it except for the bottom plate with the serial number.
Update to my last post: Now that Adobe has updated its DNG converter and RAW file filter to version 6.3, the choices for RAW capture with the G12 have increased:
For users of Photoshop 5, RAW filter 6.3 allows direct import (or through Bridge).
For users of older versions of Photoshop, you can sidestep DPP and Lightroom by using the free DNG converter 6.3.
This transition period has introduced me Lightroom 3.3 - I bought it at version 1 and wasn't impressed, but 3.3 is pretty slick. I particularly like its noise reduction.
A few cautions about Lightroom, however:
(1) If Lightroom's catalog file gets corrupted, it freezes my whole XP machine! I'm going to start having it make daily backups of the catalog file. - CORRECTION: Corruption of the catalog wasn't the source of the freezes. it turned out that the problem was my old nVidia Desktop Manager, which provides manipulation of multiple monitors and its own GUI for the basic nVidia video driver. nVidia Desktop Manager has been giving Lightroom fits for years. Disabling it stopped the freezes. I don't use multiple monitors, and the Windows controls are sufficient for me, so I'm satisfied - except that my free trial of Lightroom has expired and I'm having trouble coming up the the money to buy it!
(2) To keep the catalog file in synch with the locations of files, the recommendation is to do file management through Lightroom - but be careful about deleting images through Lightroom. I saw that a small folder and its subfolder had the same images, so I deleted the ones in the folder - which took out the ones in the subfolder as well. (Fortunately, I had let them go to the recycle bin.) Apparently, Lightroom shows all images in subfolders in their parent folders.