ZEISS is expanding its technology portfolio specifically for the cinema, broadcast, and visual effects industries with the acquisition of camera tracking pioneer Ncam Technologies.

Ncam’s multi-award-winning hybrid camera tracking technology is an excellent complement to ZEISS’ lineup of cinema lenses and lens data related services.

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.

For more than 175 years, ZEISS has been standing for highest technical knowhow and unsurpassed expert status in optics and through their established global footprint, they can offer excellent service in every region. Ncam, which was founded in 2012 and has locations in London and Los Angeles, brings recognized expertise in camera tracking, visual effects, virtual production and more to ZEISS. Both companies are convinced that combining their global resources will lead to improved customer support and exciting innovations in the cine and broadcast markets and beyond.

“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.”

ZEISS will introduce the first product out of this cooperation later this summer and is committed to support all Ncam users and customers. The company says that 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.