Is the thing on the back of the camera in picture 1 a detachable plate or film holder? How big is it? How big is the object in general? At a very rough guess, this is a special-purpose box camera which would be fitted with a lens (and maybe shutter) in a panel at the smaller end and used to take pictures of something at a fixed distance and magnification. I have seen somewhat similar cameras used for fingerprints in the late 1890s and 1900s. These were made with no adjustments since they were for use by police with little photographic training. There have also been "mugshot" cameras on the same principle.