An Intelligent Assistant for Your DSLR or Mirrorless Camera
Review by Michael Corsentino
Capturing droolworthy landscape and nature photos involves no less than a series of nine steps and complex techniques and formulas. Think about it: You need to compose the shot, check the histogram, adjust the exposure, focus on your subject, compute the hyperfocal distance to keep everything sharp, enable bracketing to capture more dynamic range, add a neutral density filter, update the exposure, and capture the image.
With Arsenal, “the Smart Camera Assistant,” engineer and artificial intelligence designer Ryan Stout has created a tool that simplifies the entire process, allowing you to focus on the composition while Arsenal takes care of everything else. It’s like always having a nature photography expert with you, except he’s tiny and lives in your camera bag!
You can think of Arsenal, the world’s first AI photography assistant, like Auto Mode on steroids. Taking a great picture is simple: Just attach it, wirelessly connect it with your smart phone, and shoot. With one tap, Arsenal intelligently searches its database of thousands of images to suggest the best settings for your scene. For example, Arsenal is able to detect such things as flowing water in a scene, determine the right shutter speed to beautifully capture its motion, and activate image stabilization to keep everything else tack sharp.
Scenes are analyzed using 18 different factors such as subject motion, image stabilization, diffraction, sensor noise, focus depth, tripod vibration, sensor size, hyperfocal distance, megapixels, etc. The ideal settings suggested are based on state-of-the-art machine learning designed to help you take a great photo in any condition.
Automated photo stacking for deep focus and high-dynamic range are accomplished in seconds, and Arsenal even merges images into a new RAW file. No need for expensive neutral-density filters and long-exposure calculations; Arsenal’s got you covered.
You can also easily capture stunning time-lapse footage using Arsenal. Exposures are automatically adjusted in changing light to create smooth transitions from day to night, and you can watch a high-definition preview of your time-lapse as its being captured.
When you want to work manually, Arsenal allows complete wireless camera control via smartphone to adjust settings, see a live preview, and trigger the shutter from up to 100′ away.
Arsenal also makes it much easier to review images in the field. Scroll through your captures on your smart phone, zoom in to see details at full resolution, apply star ratings to your favorites, and share via social media right from your phone. ■
