The on-off switch turns on cmara but view finder is black with red snow. If I push the switch to the On positiion and hold it will then operate

Hi, With DSLR's you're supposed to look through the view finder to take a picture however if you'd like to use live view on the LCD you need to turn live view on. If you look on the back of your camera there's a toggle around the red record button, you switch it and it'll turn live view on. If you need anymore help feel free to contact me and I can give you a hand =)

It's faulty. Return it.

There's a covered screw in the center of the adjustment knob on the view finder.
Probably that's the one holding the back.

Many of these low cost red dot finder have weak and or defective on-off switches. They break very easily. Best to discard the finder and buy a better one.

There is lock on black portion of view finder push it and turn it anti clockwise it will open and use hand blower n clean it

1. Push the "Power" switch downward into the "Hold" position.
2. Press and hold the "Menu" and "Record" buttons at the same time until the device resets.
3. Push the "Power" switch upward all the way to turn it back on.
OR
1. Grab a steady hold around the device.
2. Push the "Power" upward and hold it there until it powers off.
3. Power the device back on by releasing the power switch and then pushing it upward again.
OR
1. Unscrew the screws on the back of the device (or simply push the lid off if it is a model without screws.)
2. Take out the batteries from the slot and wait until the screen goes black.
3. Insert the batteries the same way they were mounted and attached the lid again.
4. Push the power switch upward to turn on the device.

You should go into the menu, camera settings and set the evf to on. EVF stands for electronic view finder. This can be set to be on when the lcd is open or closed. CAreful, if the evf is set to on and you point the viewfinder towards the sun, it will burn white marks into the viewfinder and ruin it.

it may be hung up in the middle of a shot and can"t reset if this is the case you must reset the camera to its start position

the view finder is either burnt out or there is break in the camera somwhere causeing it not to display on the screen.

other then that refer to your owners manual to see if there is any battery saving features that turn off the screen that need a certain few buttons pushed to re-activate the view finder

I had the exact same camera blacked-out malfunction. I followed booj's advice and it cured the problem. What I did: I turned off the w375 phone by pressing and holding the red button (not just closing the clam shell, like I normally do), after the phone powered down, I restarted it by pressing and holding the green button. After it powered up, the camera at first had the same black screen, then, all of a sudden, the view finder started working normally and it now takes pictures correctly. - MGB