[Leica] A bit OT, but we're Renaissance folks, right?

[hlritter at bex.net (Howard Ritter)]

I have a Nikon N80 film SLR that sat unused after 2005, when I got my first 
digital SLR, until yesterday. I want to use it again for an idea I have 
about film astrophotography, so I put new batteries in it and turned it on. 
No result?nothing on the LDC data panel, no autofocus, no shutter, no LCD 
panel illuminator. Pushed the two-button reset. No result. Batteries out, 
batteries in, turned it on, turned it off, reset it, etc. etc. No result. 
After a few minutes I noticed that the LCD info display on top now showed a 
big -E-, meaning no film in the camera, as it does when the camera is 
off?progress! Turned it on and the LCD went blank. On & off again. No 
result, not even the E. Another minute or two and the E was back, and when I 
turned it on, it now showed camera data, as is normal. Push the shutter 
button and all goes blank. A few minutes later and the display is normal 
again, and now pushing the shutter button causes the lens to auto-focus and 
the shutter to fire. From there it's been working normally.

So, as that the N80 is as much a computer-controlled electronic device as a 
mechanical one, it clearly has circuitry. Apparently some circuit component 
underwent a change in 9 years of not being powered up that disabled the 
device, then recovered function in a gradual or incremental manner once 
power had been applied. What is it?

An internal intermediary battery that gets charged by the main batteries, 
purpose being to preserve the computer's data when the main batteries get 
discharged, and without a charge on which the camera won't work? And as it 
charges up, starts to run the camera incrementally? The manual makes no 
mention of an internal battery or of a period of recovery if the camera's 
been unused for years (maybe Nikon didn't even know this could happen).

An electrolytic capacitor that loses its polarity in years of non-use, then 
re-forms over several minutes after new batteries are installed?

Anyone know or have thoughts?

?howard, n7exn