ZEISS acquires camera tracking pioneer Ncam Technologies

Leading lens manufacturer expands technology portfolio with first product announcement to come later this summer.

This is potentially an interesting one: ZEISS has acquired UK-based camera tracking pioneer Ncam Technologies Ltd. It’s been a couple of years since Ncam released any new hardware, with Ncam Reality 2021 representing a then new high-water mark in realtime camera tracking systems, so it will be very interesting to see what the injection of capital from ZEISS brings to the company.

To recap. Ncam’s hybrid camera tracking technology makes it possible to spatially track broadcast camera systems indoors and outdoors by utilizing different tracking methods. It’s flexible, robust, and always played well with other products in the virtual studio/tracking ecosystem. Indeed, ZEISS says that Ncam’s technology is an excellent complement to ZEISS' cinema product lineup as well as recently introduced lens data related services in the CinCraft ecosystem. The aim, it says, is to deliver outstanding, easy to use tracking and VFX solutions for professional production workflows, and the two companies promise that the first product announcement will come later this summer, presumably for IBC. 

“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.

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, which is good news for the many companies that already went big on the technology.