JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

There is a product being readied for production that might hit the streets around Jan of next year that will work with selected Nikon, Canon, Sony and Fuji cameras with hints of more cameras later after release. I can't put a link here since it would be moved to another section. The product attaches to the flash connector on top of the camera and connects to the USB port. The unit then communicates with a smartphone and provides many capabilities for the camera including bracketing, time lapse, focus stacking and so on as well as a super auto like capability. This product was brought up on DPREVIEW, but they seemed to go into overdrive on why they didn't need anything like this and that they were all such good photographers that they didn't need something like this. But I kind of like the idea of it firing off bracked photos and doing a RAW merge which is saved as a .PNG (if I remember from the online video) and is view-able with the smart phone. Or to figure out how many images to focus stack and to have the camera take all the shots and then to assemble and save the result. Plus many other other capabilities. Maybe the professional photographers don't think they need this. But for many of us, this looks quite interesting. Try googling "Arsenal’s Smart Assistant" to see for yourself.

Some quotes from their web site. All the following is copy and pasted from their site.

The Best Settings, Every Time

Arsenal’s Smart Assistant uses state of the art AI to choose the best settings for each shot. By looking at the scene you’re shooting, its AI can search a database of thousands of photos to choose the best settings. It then refines those settings using 18 different factors. The result is the perfect settings, no matter what you’re photographing.

AI with Style

Arsenal’s AI is trained on millions of popular online photos. Arsenal’s deep learning neural network identifies similar photos to the subject you're shooting, and clusters those settings based on style. It then uses the most popular cluster and adjusts those settings based on 18 different factors to customize the settings to your shot.

Settings Optimized for the Shot

Smart Assistant customizes settings based on the lens and camera you're using, and how they perform in different situations. Is your lens weaker at certain apertures? Arsenal will move settings to avoid those weaknesses. Sitting atop your camera, Arsenal’s accelerometer can judge exactly how stable your camera is. It can then choose the perfect shutter speed to get sharp photos without noise.

Sharper Photos

Smart Assistant chooses a focus position in the scene to maximize sharpness. You can also tell it what you want in focus and what you don’t, and Arsenal will balance the right focus position, aperture, and shutter speed to make sure everything is sharp.

Live View with Your Phone

Phones and tablets typically have at least 3 times the resolution and 2 times the brightness of a camera’s rear screen. Arsenal gives you live view on your phone, making it easier to see exactly what your shot will look like. The compose tool gives you grids and a level to make sure you photo is perfectly composed.

Stacking Made Easy

If there’s one “secret of the pros” in landscape and real-estate photography, it’s stacking. Taking multiple photos and merging them together to capture detail that is lost in a single exposure. Arsenal makes stacking easy. It can take the optimal number of photos at the right settings, then merge the photos to a new RAW or JPG file. The new file is written back to the SD card and can be previewed on your phone.

Full Resolution Zoom
Ever notice how hard it is to judge a photo on the back of your camera? Cameras create a lower quality version of photos to use for review. Zooming in 1:1 on the back of a camera often isn’t actually 1:1, meaning when you get it on the computer, you realize you missed focus, had a dust spot, etc. Arsenal lets you zoom in 1:1, on the original photo, on your phone; making it easy to be sure you get exactly the shot you wanted.

Timelapse - Reinvented

Currently timelapse photography can be incredibly tedious and involves a lot of guesswork. Arsenal tries to simplify the process.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Yes, these tools take much from the hands of the individual if they so chose. I admit that often because I can not see my menu in the sun, I use my camera Auto or Auto +.

My training is as a chemist; while for years computational chemistry [& Physics] has been around it is not helpful to the every day tasks of getting common information; rather it is a in-depth theory tool. If a chemist wants to know the melt point of a substance they look in a book or go on line. Now, still developmental, one can ask their lab assistant smart device, what is the melt point or boiling point of a particular substance. The smart device replies with the answer.

Medical pharmaceutical aps can help keep a person on track with their meds. "Using smartphone adherence apps represents a novel approach to improving adherence. This readily available technology offers many features that can be designed to help patients and health care providers improve medication-taking behavior."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3919626/

While Virginia Slim Cigarettes may have faded the saying still holds true, especially for the storage and retrieval of information "We've Come a Long Way Baby."

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Jim, this seems like a good way to convert a photographer to a button pusher.
--Bob

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Maybe true. But it does permit doing things that cannot be done by the camera alone. For instance, Sony offers apps for their e-mount cameras that have so-so capabilities such as focus stacking. The Sony app thinks that 3 images should do it. But this allows one to specify the near point, the far point and it computes how many intermediate points to add, takes the images and stacks them together and saves the stack in a lossless 16-bit format. I like that ability.

And for bracketing, my Sony camera offers the individual bracketed files, or an autostack where the result is a JPEG. Also can do dynamic range where the result can be a RAW, but not as good as bracketing. This does the stack and again saves the image in a lossless 16-bit format again.

And many other things that it can do. I think it looks quite useful.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Jim, I don't know many cameras that, by themselves, produce any photographs. It requires a person to operate the camera and make crucial decisions regarding composition and exposure. It's always better to remain smarter than the equipment one is using. Once that level is transgressed, one is reduced to begin a porter and button pusher.
--Bob

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

I personally have no philosophical problem with making high end photography more accessible to more people. Technologies that start out for the pros and skilled experts often simplify and automate to reach the average person. That is what will keep the company doors open after all.
As for why DPREVIEW sort of crapped all over this one, I do not know. But perhaps this technology right now is going to be expensive, and so out of reach of most except the more invested photographer? I dunno. But I do macrophotography, and I envy those who can do focus stacking right on the spot. I would love to have that with my Canon.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I am getting the sense that the cost of this may be in the $300 range. Don't know for certain. But at that price, many will give it a try. Since you need to control the camera from a SmartPhone, the camera must be on a tripod. This means that users will pick and choose when and where to use it and hand held shooting will still be the old fashioned way. And hand held is the majority of what I shoot. Honestly, I think it sounds really good.

As for those at DPREVIEW, I sense that many so called professional photographers are protecting their turf.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

The Kickstarter Campaign is now over and they got pledges for $2.65M (the goal was $50,000 in order to go to production). It is also now available for pre-order with anticipated delivery date of Feb 2018 for $175.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/arsenal-the-intelligent-camera-assistant--2#/

Prototypes have been built and work. There will be additional polish done to the SW and the product will be prepared for production.

There are a lot of people who have jumped aboard the train who look forward to the capability this unit brings. There are also the 'camera experts' that poo poo it as something that will cause users to stop thinking about how to use their camera settings. Personally, I think it looks really promising and will add capability that is now difficult.

Here is a page to see if your camera is supported. https://witharsenal.com/supported#supported This list includes those that will be supported at release, and it going to grow after release with additional cameras added. There are some cameras out there that have insufficient USB control, and may never be added.