Can I retrieve the left and right images of a ZED camera at different resolutions?

Last updated: October 23, 2026

The two sensors of a ZED stereo camera always capture at the same resolution: the left and right images are acquired simultaneously and must have the same size to be matched by the stereo depth computation. For this reason, you cannot set different capture resolutions for the two sensors (for example, HD1080 on one sensor and VGA on the other).

However, the ZED SDK can output each image at a different resolution. The retrieveImage() function accepts an optional output resolution, and the image is resized on the GPU before it is returned. For example, you can capture in HD1080 and retrieve the left image at full resolution and the right image downscaled:

C++:

sl::Mat left, right;
zed.retrieveImage(left, sl::VIEW::LEFT);                                    // full resolution
zed.retrieveImage(right, sl::VIEW::RIGHT, sl::MEM::CPU, sl::Resolution(672, 376)); // downscaled

Python:

left = sl.Mat()
right = sl.Mat()
zed.retrieve_image(left, sl.VIEW.LEFT)                                      # full resolution
zed.retrieve_image(right, sl.VIEW.RIGHT, sl.MEM.CPU, sl.Resolution(672, 376))  # downscaled

The same option is available for retrieveMeasure(), for example to retrieve a lower-resolution depth map.

Additional resources: