ZEISS CinCraft Scenario 2.0 Released – Non-ZEISS Lens Support and More

Accessory News

by Jose PradaMay 23^rd, 2024

ZEISS has announced their most significant CinCraft Scenario update: CinCraft Scenario 2.0. The new version adds support for a list of third-party cine and broadcast lenses with pre-calibrated lens templates, as well as more features and bug fixes. Let’s dive deep into it!

CinCraft Scenario is a real-time camera tracking system for virtual production, live compositing, and VFX post-production applications. The system, developed by ZEISS and NCam –acquired by the former– consists of software and hardware components and now sees its 2.0 version. If you want to know more about how the system works, please visit this previous article. 

CinCraft Scenario 2.0

The original CinCraft Scenario is integrated with ZEISS and ARRI/ZEISS glass. This new version supports third-party lenses through pre-calibrated lens templates and the Lens Template Finetuner, which allows you to adjust them in minutes to fit the lenses in a specific production. 

The following is the list of new features in CinCraft Scenario 2.0.5:

• Added import of Ncam Reality Lens Calibrations (Compatibility of CinCraft Scenario to old Ncam Reality Calibrations with nodal information).
• Added free Lens Template database with third-party (non-ZEISS) cinema and broadcast lenses (Enables to use CinCraft Scenario with third-party -non-ZEISS- lenses flexibly).
• Added Lens Template Finetuner with guided steps to match templates with real lens: Lens Encoder value status check, Center Shift calibration option for zoom lenses, CamBar Alignment panel to ensure accurate fine-tuning results, Zero Point locker for world alignment, calibration points refinement panel for adjustment of field of view values, store template on disk with ID. 
• Updated list of supported camera models and recording formats: Sony Burano, RED Komodo-X
• Added ping functionality to ping an IP address 
• Updated CamBar to main camera delay position and function in the dashboard to make it clearer and easier to adjust 
• Updated visual display of currently used tracking points of the learned pointcloud (CinCraft Scenario shows actively used tracking features in green and unused features in grey live). 

There are also some bug fixes with CinCraft Scenario 2.0. The Cloning Tracking Configuration works now as expected in this update. The encoder disconnection when using Link has been fixed, and there’s no need to be online for Lens fine-tuning and Marker setup. Finally, they have fixed the port setting on the Datastream tab, and the Link update process is now more robust. 

On a final note, ZEISS released CinCraft Export 1.0, preparing recorded tracking data for post-production.

Price and availability 

Given the complex characteristics of a system like this, the ZEISS CinCraft camera tracking system can be configured according to the user’s needs, but bundle options are also available. For example, the ZEISS CinCraft Scenario Base Bundle sells at $13,000. The Advanced Bundle costs $16,000, and the ZEISS CinCraft Scenario Advanced Broadcast Bundle costs $43,600.

For more information, please visit ZEISS’ website here.

What do you think about this CinCraft Scenario 2.0 update? Do you have experience using a similar tracking system? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!