Ilex-Calumet Caltar #4189 10" f:6.3 -- need info

[Bill_1856]

A friend gave me this in a #3 Acme Synchro shutter. It doesn't say Caltar II, which is all I can find searching the site. No doubt it's a re-branded something else. Anybody know what it is/was? Dagor? Symmar? Rodenstock? Tessar? (I can't count the reflections.)
Anyhow it's a superb lens that goes well on 5x7.
Thanks.

[Louis Pacilla]

Sounds like a Tessar IIb formula which is the same used by Kodak for the Commercial Ektar. Manufactured by Ilex in the late 50's, 60-70's as a direct competitor to the Commercial Ektar and They are a fine lens& cover around 65 ish degrees stopped down.

[Bill_1856]

Thanks, Louis. I can't believe how good this lens is -- I may have to actually offer to pay my friend for it.

[Ari]

They are very good lenses; I had a 375mm Orbit lens (same as Ilex) that really shined on 8x10.
And yes, they are very similar to the KCEs, just a tad less contrast, from my own experience.

[mdarnton]

I have a 12" 6.3 Ilex that's unbelievably sharp. What you lose is wide coverage for movements, but they're very sharp!

[Michael Graves]

I, too, have the 375 Caltar. I came painfully close to selling it because I also have a 14" Artar and I thought they were too close. But they're not! They have completely different imaging characteristics. I also had the 6.5" Caltar of the same generation and made the mistake of letting it go with a camera I sold. I thought it was too close to the 150mm. Bad move.