FED NKVD backplate holes... history?

O

OverExposed

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Greetings all,
I'm new to this site and look forward to sharing experience!
I offer a question, perhaps naive...

I'm fettling a FED NKVD (d) for B&W duty and wonder why the backplate on these earlier FEDs have a circular hole? What (was or is) the purpose?

I have several later (g) FEDs with plain circular film backplates.

Thanks in advance!
 
It is a collimation hole very similar to the early Leica IIs (and earlier Leicas) on which the camera is based.

Early Feds had the hole in pressure plate and a plugged hole in the back of the camera body.

I have seen a camera still with the hole in the pressure plate but no hole in the body...
 
Hi,

The registration (distance of film plane from front of lens flange) wasn't standardised originally. There was a hole in the back and the back plate and the registration was adjusted and shimmed until OK. Then the hole was plugged.

Obviously the hole was to look at the image whilst adjusting.

After it was standardised they used up the old back plates; I guess.

Leica were the same and FED cameras followed their practice. The only minor difference was that Leitz marked the flange (EDIT: and lens) with a letter "O" (Or "0" perhaps*) once the standardised registration was used and FED (at Khrakov) didn't.

Regards, David

*That would make more sense if it was the figure and not the letter.
 
There is a hole in the back up to the s/n c. 10000 (so, the 1936 1b).
And on the pressure plate up to the s/n c. 150000 (1941, 1d).
Why this important difference between the two? Frankly, I don't know...

Jacques.
 
Hi,

I can guess the covers with holes in were abandoned when they were no longer needed and that they were made in small batches and the hole drilling was just abandoned.

But making 150,000 back plates in one run seems a bit odd. Given the lack of solid info about the factory and its production before being over-run by the German forces in 1941 or 42, I am wondering if the older parts were from repairs.

War time cameras were often made up from broken ones as Contax and Leica were no longer available to the allies. The same could/should apply to the Soviet cameras during the war once the factory had been destroyed.

Regards, David
 
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