San Diego, CA—Zeiss has acquired UK-based, camera-tracking pioneer Ncam Technologies Ltd. With this buyout, Zeiss is expanding its technology portfolio specifically for the cinema, broadcast and visual effects industries.
“We are happy to be combining Ncam’s unique tracking technology with Zeiss’s longstanding expertise in cinema lenses, lens data and the cinema market,” commented Christophe Casenave, who is responsible for the cine portfolio at Zeiss. “This enables us to think beyond current camera-tracking capabilities to offer innovative solutions especially for visual effects, virtual production and other applications.”
Zeiss Buys Ncam Technologies
Moreover, Ncam’s award-winning hybrid camera-tracking technology makes it possible to spatially track a camera indoors and outdoors. It does so by utilizing different tracking methods.
The acquired tracking data is essential for virtual production and live compositing. As such, it offers added value for postproduction. The technology is a complement to Zeiss’s cinema product lineup. That portfolio includes Supreme Prime and Supreme Prime Radiance, and CP.3 lenses. It also comprises recently introduced lens data-related services in the CinCraft ecosystem.
Together, Zeiss and Ncam aim “to deliver outstanding, easy-to-use tracking and VFX solutions for professional production workflows,” Casenave stated.
Brice Michoud, head of Research and Development at Ncam added: “The team is excited to work together with our new colleagues at Zeiss on the next step in camera-tracking technology and make it available to more users than ever before.” Ncam was founded in 2012 and has locations in London and Los Angeles.
The two companies hope that combining their global resources will also lead to improved customer support and innovations in the cine and broadcast markets. In addition, Zeiss plans to ensure that every new feature and improvement brought to the technology will benefit existing Ncam users. Consequently, Zeiss plans to offer an upgrade program. A first product announcement will follow later this summer.
