I say that the E-620’s mirror lockup function is a secret because of how difficult it is to find it. I tried to find “mirror lockup” in the index of the (extremely poorly written) instruction manual, but to no avail. Only by searching on the web was I able to discover that the mirror-lockup function is called “ANTI-SHOCK” in the Olympus world. Someone at Olympus thought it was a good idea to change the name from what photographers are used to calling it to some new Olympus-only name. They also thought it was a good idea to spell it out in all capital letters.
Even after you know the correct name, the mirror lockup function continues to be a big secret. In order to turn it on, you have to go into the Custom Menus and change the setting from Off to some time setting (I used the default of two seconds) which is the amount of time between the mirror going up and the shutter triggering. The Custom Menus themselves are sort of a secret, because they also don’t appear unless you enable them.
Once “ANTI-SHOCK” is enabled, you can then access it in the Sequential Shooting menu (which also has the self-timer and remote control options). There’s no reason not to enable “ANTI-SHOCK,” because it’s not always turned on, you just get the option of selecting it in the Sequential Shooting menu. It’s not at all clear to me why, by default, the mirror lockup option is turned off, or why Olympus thinks there’s even a need to turn it off.
Below is a dramatic example of the benefits of mirror lockup. (In case you are wondering, I had IS turned off for both of these photos.)
Without mirror lockup
With mirror lockup
The above examples also demonstrate that a light and inexpensive tripod doesn’t keep your camera perfectly steady when pitted against a slapping mirror.
You should always use mirror lockup when shooting inanimate objects with a tripod, and you should never buy a DSLR without this feature. There are still some entry-level DSLRs on the market which don’t have this feature. Caveat emptor!
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