Vision system and method. The system includes a vision system, including: a camera, a processor and memory, coupled to the camera, and an EtherCAT interface, coupled to the processor and memory, possibly contained in a chassis, and operable to couple to an EtherCAT network that provides for deterministic low-latency communication between the vision system and devices coupled to the EtherCAT network. The vision system may be configurable to operate as any of: an EtherCAT master device, an EtherCAT slave device, or a TCP / IP Ethernet device. One or more additional vision systems may couple to the EtherCAT network. The vision systems may be synchronized using an EtherCAT distributed clock technique, time-based triggered, and / or event triggered, via the EtherCAT network, e.g., in a multi-view vision, collaborative processing, control, I / O, or video servoing application, e.g., using an EtherCAT deterministic low latency closed loop feedback system, including processing, control, or I / O devices.