Ansco 8x10 Universal strange groove

[brucep]

Taking apart the film back as part of the restoration of this camera I discover a groove running around the half that clamps to the rear standard ie the half that doesn't hold the ground glass.. The strange thing is that the groove does not align up on each side, and 2 of the sides have what looks like a metal spring in them.

Can anyone tell me the function of these springs and the groove

94144 94145 94146 94147

Many thanks
Bruce

[Jon Shiu]

Guess they would be for sliding splitter boards to expose one part of the film at a time.

Jon

[IanG]

Both my 10x8 Agfa Ansco camera backs (Universal & Commercial) are the same and have the springs as well. Might be interesting to make some sliding splitters for 10"x4" and 8"x5" and see how well they work.

10x4 with a 141mm f16 Ross AM (Military EWA Protar) would be very useful.

Ian

[Jim Noel]

splitter boards work very well