Ncam’s hybrid tracking technology complements ZEISS’ cinema product portfolio
Oberkochen, Germany, July 18: ZEISS has acquired UK-based camera tracking pioneer Ncam Technologies Ltd. With this acquisition, ZEISS is expanding its technology portfolio specifically for the cinema, broadcast, and visual effects industries. Ncam’s multi-award-winning hybrid camera tracking technology makes it possible to spatially track the camera indoors and outdoors by utilizing different tracking methods. The acquired tracking data is essential for virtual production and live compositing and offers a huge added value for postproduction. This technology is an excellent complement to ZEISS’ cinema product lineup which includes Supreme Prime and Supreme Prime Radiance, Cinema Zoom and CP.3 lenses as well as recently introduced lens data related services in the CinCraft ecosystem. Together, ZEISS and Ncam are aiming to deliver outstanding, easy to use tracking and VFX solutions for professional production workflows.
“We are happy to be combining Ncam’s unique tracking technology with ZEISS’ longstanding expertise in cinema lenses, lens data and the cinema market,” says Christophe Casenave, responsible for the cine portfolio at ZEISS, adding, “This enables us to think beyond current camera tracking capabilities to offer innovative solutions especially for visual effects, virtual production and other applications.”
Brice Michoud, Head of Research and Development at Ncam adds, “The team is excited to be working together with our new colleagues at ZEISS on the next step in camera tracking technology and making it available to more users than ever before.”
Ncam was founded in 2012 and has locations in London and Los Angeles. Combining global resources of Ncam and ZEISS will lead to improved customer support and exciting innovations in the cine and broadcast markets and beyond
ZEISS plans to ensure that every new feature and improvement brought to the technology will also benefit existing Ncam users and will offer a compelling upgrade program. A first product announcement will follow later this summer.
For questions about the acquisition, interested parties can reach out to the ZEISS team ([email protected]).
ZEISS Consumer Products
ZEISS Consumer Products combines the company’s business with photography and videography lenses, binoculars, spotting scopes and hunting optics. The unit is allocated to the Consumer Markets segment and is represented at sites in Oberkochen and Wetzlar.
ZEISS Cinematography
ZEISS high-end cinematography lenses have been advancing the film industry for more than 80 years and have received numerous honors, including three Scientific and Engineering Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Today, around the world, filmmakers choose ZEISS “made in Germany” lenses for their productions.
The ZEISS cine lens portfolio includes the Lightweight Zoom LWZ.3 for Super 35 as well as the Compact Prime CP.3 and CP.3 XD, and Cinema Zoom CZ.2. The families of Supreme Prime and Supreme Prime Radiances lenses combine a generous range of focal lengths with unsurpassed quality for all manner of camera combinations.
The ZEISS CinCraft ecosystem offers lens data-related services for visual effects. CinCraft Mapper, provides frame-accurate lens distortion and shading data for compositing and matchmoving. The addition of the recently acquired, Ncam, known for pioneering camera tracking technology, opens the doors for more developments to enhance camera work in VFX, and virtual production on LED walls and volumes.
Headquartered in Oberkochen, Germany, ZEISS Cinematography is represented in: Los Angeles, California and White Plains, New York, USA; Mexico City, Mexico; Cambridge, UK; New Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, India; Beijing and Shanghai, China; Taipei, Taiwan; Singapore; and Tokyo, Japan.
