Well Standard
The Well was a series of prewar Japanese cameras, probably made by Nihon Koki. They were distributed by a company called Misusu Shôkai (美薦商会).
Well Standard
The Well Standard took ten 4x5cm pictures on 127 film. It was meant to imitate the luxury 35mm rangefinder it was not. It only had a direct vision finder and a brilliant finder, one on each side of the top housing, thus showing two windows like a rangefinder. There was an accessory shoe between the two finders.
To confuse you even more, it had two knobs, at each end of the top plate. The right knob was a real one, and was used to advance the film. The left one was a fake rewind knob, because 127 film does not need to be rewound.
Under the advance knob is what looks like an exposure counter. In fact it is just another fake, an exposure counter of the crudest type: numbers engraved in the rotating knob. It was not possible to use the traditional red window advance because the 127 film paperback was not marked for the unusual 4x5cm format. A serious maker would have made an automatic stop advance device, like for almost all other Japanese 4x4cm and 4x5cm cameras of the time. But not Nihon Koki just: to advance one exposue, you had to manually stop turning when the correct number was facing an index. There was just one red window, at the back's extreme left, for the first exposure. Irregular spacing was probably frequent.
The lens and shutter housing were mounted on a telescopic tube. It has been observed with a Well Anastigmat 65/4.5 lens and a T-B-25-150 shutter, engraved Well Standard Model 1 and N.K.K. on the top housing (sold by a Japanese dealer).
There were probably other models, differing by the lens and shutter equipment. It has been reported with a Well Anastigmat 60/3.5 lens (focal length seems dubious) and a Well Rapid 1-500 shutter by a Russian dealer. It is also pictured in McKeown with a Well Anastigmat 65/3.5 lens and a T-B-1-500 shutter marked WELL something, probably WELL RAPID. In that case, the top housing has no marking, and it is probably not a Model 1.
Well Super
The Well Super was a very similar camera, taking 4.5x6cm pictures on 120 film. It is only known by a wartime advertisement (published at this page). It looked very similar, except the top housing extended somewhat under the fake rewind knob. There was a marking between the two finder windows (unreadable). The advance knob had the same shape as the Well Standard, with the crude exposure counter, but the film advance was probably by red windows.
Three models were advertised, all with a Well Anastigmat lens, focal unknown:
- Well Super I, with 4.5 lens and T-B-25-150 shutter (88 yen)
- Well Super II, with 4.5 lens and T-B-1-300 shutter (111 yen)
- Well Super IIB, with 3.5 lens and T-B-1-300 shutter (129 yen)
Case was in supplement for 8.35 yen. There was a short mention of the Well Standard in the ad. The only company name mentioned was Misusu Shôkai (美薦商会, or Misuzu, barely readable). It was surely the distributor's name. There was no mention of Nihon Koki.
