Nikon F3 Shutter speed problem

[Canoneer]

Here's the problem there. When the shutter speed appeared stuck on 1/80th, and later after the problem disappeared, there was no film in the camera. The F3 manual quoted above says something like, "when making blank shots with the shutter speed dial set on "A," the camera will take the shots at 1/80th until the frame counter reaches 1."

My F3 with no film in the camera and taking shots with lens uncapped was showing a shutter speed of 1/80th regardless of light conditions until after fooling with the camera -- then it showed a readout of accurately metered exposures varying according to the light, still with no film in the F3.

We know where that odd 1/80th speed came from -- it's the blank frame shooting speed -- but it was not consistently applied by the camera.