Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/04/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Howard, I think you hit it right on the button. The internal battery (they all have them) which runs the clock and other maintenance functions needed to be charged, and it is entirely possible some electrolytic capacitors needed re-forming. Gene ----- Original Message ----- From: "Howard Ritter" <hlritter at bex.net> To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net, "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> Sent: Friday, April 18, 2014 4:52:19 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central Subject: [Leica] A bit OT, but we're Renaissance folks, right? 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 _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information