A laser ablation ion source has been built and tested at the COALA beamline. Time-of-flight measurements for various elements are sufficiently accurate to confirm the production of the intended ion species. Furthermore, the isotope shift between 40Ca+ and 44Ca+ has been determined on these bunched beams by collinear laser spectroscopy and compared to previous measurements. The frequency of the 4s{}{}^{2}textit {S}_{1/2} rightarrow 4p{}{}^{2}textit {P}_{1/2} transition has been determined to nu ^{mathrm {D1}}_{0}=755 222 766.8(15) MHz for 40Ca+, as well as the corresponding isotope shift of 44Ca+ to 848.1(23) MHz. This is in a good agreement to more accurate measurements performed in a recent ion trap experiment and demonstrates the strength of the collinear-anticollinear approach to reduce systematic effects caused by the broad velocity distribution generated in the ablation process.