This particular lens was produced for Calumet Photographic by Rodenstock. It is the same as the Rodenstock APO Sironar N 150mm f/5.6, just with Calumet's in-house "Caltar" branding.
This is an awesome "standard" or "normal" lens for 4x5--comparable to a 50mm on 35mm film/full frame digital. It's light, compact, and sharp from corner-to-corner. I'm the second owner--a friend of mine got it from Calumet Photo sometime in the early 2000's, and it got some light studio use until he went digital. I've had it for 5-6 years, but just haven't used it as much as I thought I would, so it's time to pass it on to someone who will give it the love it deserves!
Shutter: Copal 0
In very good used condition. Fully functional. Includes caps (non-OEM) and retaining ring.
Shutter has been tested: speeds are consistent, and close to 100% accurate. I don't believe in that "sounds accurate" nonsense--I'm sorry, the human ear just isn't that precise! I actually used an adapter to attach this lens to a DSLR and compared the speeds of the Copal shutter to my DSLR shutter (which I know is accurate). I tested each shutter setting 5 times to check for variance. I found that some of the shutter speeds are slightly slow, but they are consistent, so it should be easy to compensate.
Shutter speed test results:
500: 1/2 stop slow
250: 2/3 stop slow
125: accurate
60: accurate
30: 0.2 stop slow
15: 0.2 stop slow
8: 0.1 stop slow
4: accurate
2: accurate
1: accurate
The glass is in good shape: no haze, fungus, or balsam separation. There is a bit of internal dust, but nothing that will affect image quality. I also noticed a small pinhole in the coating on the front element (see green arrow in final photo). Again, it doesn't impact image quality, but for full disclosure I wanted to mention it.
Aperture blades are clean, and move smoothly.
Filter ring is in good shape too. 49mm filters twist on easily.