Hardware Overview
Zcapture Hardware Overview
The Zcapture hardware design has had many different variations over the past several years. Through these different variations, we have strived to produce a product that is affordable, high-performance and reliable. During experimentation and actual production use, we’ve been able to refine it and produce several versions for different applications. All versions of the Zcapture hardware have the design features listed below.
The Zcapture platform has been designed with ease-of-use and high quality components in mind. Our comparison chart will help you choose an ideal system for your specific needs. We also offer several accessories, making staging awkward or larger items easy. Be sure to check out our forums for examples, tutorials, and to post questions and get feedback from other 360 photographers.
Simple and Powerful Design
While developing the Zcapture hardware platform we went through several revisions. We wanted to produce something strong and robust while still staying cost-effective and reliable. This refining process has often been tumultuous because we are constantly adding new capabilities, features and functionality to the system. At the same time, we are focused on producing products that meet most photography needs. This hardware platform has features like optical isolation from your camera and active cooling to ensure cool and stable operation. With the refining process, including multiple versions and predecessors, we were ultimately led to a refined, simple, powerful, user-friendly hardware design that is easy to operate.
Powered By Open Source Innovation
During the research and development aspects of the Zcapture hardware system, we ultimately realized open source hardware and software has a huge power and benefit. The innovative product we gravitated to is the Arduino hardware platform. This platform enables and encourages people to take control, modifying, changing or customizing the hardware to their own desires. This kind of powerful microcontroller platform has not been used in any commercial aspect other than being sold as kits to hobbyists. However, its broad adoption, remarkable stability and power have been the guiding elements to incorporating it with the Zcapture hardware platform. We currently have two different versions of our hardware: one with an actual Arduino directly plugged into it and the other with Arduino directly integrated into our hardware. Ultimately, the benefit we receive from utilizing this technology is lower cost. Greater flexibility in the hardware could be difficult to achieve any other way.
Powerful High Quality Components
From the very beginning of our design process, we wanted to ensure every design and every variation of the Zcapture hardware platform utilized only high-quality, highly-reliable components. To this end, we have opted to use many more expensive components because of their durability and flexibility. For example, the high-end stepper motor driving the turntable is capable of extremely high accuracy when positioning through the microcontroller in our platform. In addition to its accuracy, it also has a high degree of torque and holding power. Because of this, the system can run much quicker and with greater accuracy than any other method we could have chosen. While it may be a more expensive component to use, the end experience for the user and the removal of excessive, frustrating variables make it the right choice. It is a component we are willing to put our name behind.
Maximum Compatibility
After we created a capture system and developed methods for controlling cameras, we focused on ensuring we can support as many different camera models as possible. Our most important priority is empowering you, the consumer, with the ability to be independent. We have created several custom cables which allow you to connect to modern Canon and Nikon designs. Additionally we will be taking and producing tips, tricks, and hacks within our blog, including instructional information on how to create custom cables for other unique camera models. Our goal is to eventually support most, if not all, camera bodies and to stay current with the new changes the market brings.
The Zcapture 360° hardware and software suites are designed to allow any user to rapidly produce content for use in a 360° or 3-D rotating-type format. These tools have been created to empower users with the creativity they need to accomplish simple tasks at a price point well below the competition. We believe 360° and rotational product photography is where the future lies, whether it’s for use in e-commerce product demonstrations, research and development, academic settings or interaction at a touch level with digital tablets and mobile devices. Static product photos are great at showing specific angles or details of your product but 360° product photography will engage the user longer and expose them to your product in a unique way not found in any other medium. If you’re interested in purchasing the Zcapture hardware or software platform, please visit our contact page or online store to help support us in this imagery revolution.