Get Started with ZED

What’s in the Box? #

Congratulations on being the owner of a brand-new camera!

Let’s review the items you have received:

ZED 2i	ZED 2	ZED Mini
A brand new ZED 2i Stereo camera	A brand new ZED 2 Stereo camera 1.2m built-in USB 3.0 cable One Mini Tripod stand	A brand new ZED Mini camera A 1.5m and a 4m external USB 3.0 cable One VR mount

Connect your camera #

Unpack your camera, plug the camera in a USB 3.0 port and go to the next step. ZED cameras are all UVC compliant so they should be automatically recognized by your computer.

Some frequently asked questions:

How to use multiple cameras on a single platform.
How to extend the USB working distance of your camera.
How to fix USB 3.0 connection issues or drop frames.
To turn your ZED into an IP camera and transmit video over IP, see Local Streaming section.

Download and install the ZED SDK #

The ZED SDK is available for Windows, Linux and NVIDIA® Jetson platforms. It contains all the libraries that power your camera along with tools that let you test its features and settings.

Select your platform and follow the installation guide: Windows, Linux, Jetson.

Using Docker #

For deployment in production environments, we recommend packaging and running your applications and the ZED SDK in Docker containers.

Run ZED Explorer #

ZED Explorer is an application for ZED live preview and recording. It lets you change video resolution, aspect ratio, and camera parameters, and capture high-resolution snapshots and 3D video.

If the ZED is recognized by your computer, you’ll see the 3D video from your camera.

ZED Explorer is located in the following folders:

Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\ZED SDK\tools\ZED Explorer.exe
Ubuntu: /usr/local/zed/tools/ZED Explorer

Run ZED Depth Viewer #

ZED Depth Viewer uses the ZED SDK to capture and display the depth map and 3D point cloud. Run ZED Depth Viewer to check that the depth map is displayed correctly. Try different depth modes to select the depth quality/performance ratio that suits you best.

ZED Depth Viewer is located in the following folders:

Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\ZED SDK\tools\ZED Depth Viewer.exe
Ubuntu: /usr/local/zed/tools/ZED Depth Viewer

Play with the samples #

The ZED SDK includes several tutorials and samples to learn how to use video, depth, positional tracking, mapping and other information, along with many third-party integrations.

You can also check our GitHub page for the latest updates. Read the API documentation to learn more, and start experimenting with the samples!