Caltar Made in Japan?

[John Conway]

I noticed that a Caltar lens I was looking at was made in Japan. I thought they were all rodenstock. Anyone know who makes the Japan Caltars?

[Jan Pedersen]

Are you sure it is the lens and not the shutter that is made in Japan?
Copal shutters are made in Japan.

[Vaughn]

Was it the lens, or just the shutter (Copal) that was made in Japan?

[John Conway]

Yes, it is the shutter that is labeled Japan. Thanks

[Louie Powell]

Not all Caltars were made by Rodenstock.

The earliest Caltar resulted from a partnership with Ilex. Later lenses were made by Schneider, Komura, Rodenstock and Topcon. The more recent lenses are relabeled Rodenstock.

[John Conway]

Speaking of Ilex, a later model all black, actually a 90 f6.8. Is this lens made by Ilex or someone else?

[BradS]

Speaking of Ilex, a later model all black, actually a 90 f6.8. Is this lens made by Ilex or someone else?

Most likely that is a Rodenstock 90mm f/6.8 Grandagon-N.

With the caltar lenses you really need to pay attention to and specify all of the letters in the name. ...

That is to say, the Caltar type S is different from the Caltar S-II which is again different from the Caltar II-N and still different from the Caltar -W and Caltar HR, Caltar type Y, Caltar pro series, etc....on and on. If it matters to you who actually made the lens then you need to be clear about the full name.

[John Conway]

Thanks BradS. I appreciate the help.

[Kuzano]

I don't believe that Caltar ever made anything. They are a marketing company and specified all their products branded for them by manufacturers who met the bid specs. Kind of like the US Government... they never made anything. Lowest bidder wins, unless it's a no bid contract in which the losers are tax payers.

Everything Caltar is something else under the Caltar name.

[David Karp]

Years ago, Kerry Thalmann wrote an article for View Camera Magazine that detailed the different Caltar series and who made them. It also included specs for each lens in the series. If you can get your hands on this article it is very helpful.

[Kuzano]

Years ago, Kerry Thalmann wrote an article for View Camera Magazine that detailed the different Caltar series and who made them. It also included specs for each lens in the series. If you can get your hands on this article it is very helpful.

Don't know about getting the article from View Camera, but Kerry Thalmann's web site is very informative on many things LF....

Check it out

www.thalmann.com/largeformat/

[Vaughn]

I don't believe that Caltar ever made anything. They are a marketing company and specified all their products branded for them by manufacturers who met the bid specs. Kind of like the US Government... they never made anything. Lowest bidder wins, unless it's a no bid contract in which the losers are tax payers.

Everything Caltar is something else under the Caltar name.

From what I have heard of and by those who were working for Calumet (Caltar is just Calumet's line of lenses) at the time, the Calumet organization played a role in designing lenses, etc. If I had my ViewCamera Magazines in some of sort of searchable order, I'd grab May/June 2003 and re-read Kerry L. Thalmann's article on the history of Calter.

My Caltar II-N 150/5.6 has served me very well as my only lens for 4x5. Bought new around 1982 for $230 or so. Overseas, a couple thousand miles on a bicycle, down canyons and into rain forests: and that little lens keeps going. Not a second tier product. At the same time I bought a Calumet PocketView. It was just under the cost of the lens...about $210. It said "Calumet" on the front, but it was made by Peter Gowland and sold by Calumet. As a way to market that camera it seems it was a win-win-win for Calumet, Gowland and the consumer (I think I got a great deal). Of course the camera has gone wherever the lens went, and is still 100%.

From a 2005 post:


Rodenstock has been making the Caltar II-N line for Calumet since 1984 and the Caltar II-E line since 1986. The Caltar II-N series are private label version of Rodenstock's Grandagon-N and APO-Sironar-N lines. They are made in the same factory by the same workers and are identical in all respects except for the name on the lens, who handles warranty service and the price. The Caltar II-E series are private label version of Rodenstock's 150mm and 210mm three-element Geronar lenses.

From 1965 - 1984 Caltar lenses were made by five different manufacturers on three different continents. For these older Caltars, figuring out just who made what and when can be a bit confusing. I had an article on the history of the Caltar lenses published in the May/June 2003 issue of View Camera magazine. Included in the article are the basic specs on every Caltar lens made from 1965 to the present. Of course, for the current products it's easy to find the specs online. It's mostly the older Caltars where things start to get confusing.

Kerry (Thalmann)