[font color=\'#000000\']I used to be annoyed by the hassle of MLU lockup activation and de-activation, according to whether I was doing a tripod or manual shot. Now I leave MLU on all the time period. For landscape work having to trigger the shutter release with the viewfinder dark is no problem. You just have to anticipate the fact that you need to hold the camera as still as possible so there's no framing change between the lockup phase and when you hit the button the second time for the exposure. I think this extra little bit of concentration for each hand held shot is actually helping me be steadier for the exposure. In any case, I haven't had a single case where the framing wasn't what I was going for because of the little delay.
Of course, for any kind of hand held live action shooting this wouldn't work, but for landscape shooting leaving MLU activated all the time sure beats fumbling around in the menu to activate and de-activate MLU all the time.
I think for any modern digital SLR you really need to figure out just what you need and learn to do that in a streamlined way. It's nearly impossible to learn to do every conceivable operation that something like a 1ds is capable of in the field quickly. I've occasionally done shooting in slot canyons (back in my 35mm film days) and watched people with expensive complicated cameras (still film back then) sitting on a tripod while they were paging through their manual as the light was deteriorating. This complexity has gotten even more overwhelming with digital cameras and we also have this complexity with our constantly changing computers and software, phones, fax machines, etc. Even setting a watch is complicated. We can't learn it all. We have to prioritize and streamline to mitigate CAS (complexity anxiety syndrome).[/font]