Why is there a hole in Foma Backing Paper?

[distributed]

I recently shot and developed my first roll of Foma film, Fomapan 200 specifically. The backing paper has a hole around the end of the film in the same row as the 6x6 numbers are printed.

See the attached image for a photo. I am pretty convinced that the hole still has film under it. The reason is that I always bend back the loose end of the film along with the baking paper in order to make the film more cooperative to go on my Paterson reel. In the picture you can see that the hole is just right before the bend.

What is the reason to have a hole in the backing paper?

 

[Stanislav Boščík]

It's used during manual film adjustment step for precise alignment of the film on the backing paper. As it is done manually sometimes it is not so precise. Especially when you try to make 13 shots on one film thin may cause trouble.

 

[distributed]

Interesting! Do you know in which cases the adjustment is done manullally? Is the tape also stuck to the beginning of the film by hand?

I have an Ikonta folder that uses the 6x9 numbers to position the 6x4.5 pictures. The last, 16th, picture is already below the hole. Luckily there is no light coming in on the middle row, so I am not suffering from fogging. However the end of the roll is so short that I don't really have space to put clips to hang the film to dry.