HLD-5 battery pack HELP! (1 Viewer)

I have just bought a used E620. It came with the HLD-5 Battery pack which must have the worst instructions ever! I have managed, by trial and error to figure out most of it but I am stuck with one control:-

Labelled (14) Vertical operation Lock knob (when shooting vertically).

It isn't a "knob" it's a slider but more importantly, I don't understand what it is supposed to do. Obviously, I can lock it but why? What does that achieve?

Help wanted and don't worry about treating me like an idiot; I can take it!

Andy

I am nor sure about the HLD-5 but I have the HLD-7, which is a portrait grip. It has a lock which is used to switch off the extra buttons and dials on the grip when it is used in landscape mode (i.e. horizontally at the bottom of the camera.) This is to prevent accidental activation of the buttons and dials. I don't know if the same thing applies to the HLD-5.

Ron

It applies to the HLD-5 as Ron says, congrats on reading the instructions.

It is generally the control dial that gets accidentally rotated if you don't lock, the shutter buton is only prone to accidental release if you put it into a camera bag without switching the camera off. Some battery grips I have used on other makes or models of camera are far more prone to accidental activation than on the HLD-5, however, it is quite nice that Olympus have kept the feature.

This grip improves the E-620 greatly when handling heavy lenses and the extra battery capacity comes in very useful. Over the years I have rarely ever taken the lock off on any camera as it is generally far quicker to keep your normal grip while rotating the camera.

About my only gripe is that Olympus havn't really got a decent grip strap for it. Being more compact it also feels more substantial than the HLD-7 used on E-3/30s

Any more problems with the 620, don't be afraid to ask, its quite a nice little thing when you get to know it.

iveljay said:

Being more compact it also feels more substantial than the HLD-7 used on E-3/30s

Click to expand...

I guess that should be the HLD-4? On my HLD-7 there is the shutter button, two dials and two function buttons, so there is a lot more likelihood of accidentally activating one of them. Unfortunately it only takes battery, unlike the HLD-4 / HLD-5.

Ron

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I now understand a lot more about the HLD-5 than I ever could have got from the manual - which is a complete waste of paper.

Andy

Glad to help - yes Ron its a HLD-4 on the E-3 - just too lazy to have a look! I lose track what fits on what. However when I get an E-M1 who knows.