Date:  May 4, 2019

This is the original Kickstarter product.

I received mine I think almost 1 plus year ago.

But at that time, I could not get the firmware to work with my Fuji X-T1 camera.

By the way, as of now, it only support Fuji X-T1 in the Fuji mirrorless camera range at the moment.  The next firmware update will support Fuji X-T2.  Hopefully, one day, they can support Fuji X-H1.

The most recent firmware is stable enough to connect it to my Fuji X-T1.  Yeah, sometimes, you really have to give Kickstarter product a chance for them to correct their product.  🙂  For me, I waited for 1 plus year.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2092430307/arsenal-the-intelligent-camera-assistant-0

OK, what is this?  If you have a mirrorless camera or DSLR camera, and you are not so good at it yet, then, you connect your camera via USB to the Arsenal, and let the Arsenal figure it out for you.

Well, you can use the AUTO mode on the camera itself to figure that out for you, but Arsenal is a AI, so, it searched the database for “similar photos” and then, pick the one that is closest to your photo scene.  So, it will decide the ISO, Aperture and the Shutter Speed settings for you.  And some times it will take multiple shots too.  Let the AI decide and take it for you.  Then, you see what is the recommended setting and then, you can go back to your manual mode and play around +1 -1 of the settings..

Like what the box says “Capture Amazing Photos”.  Hahaha…

The box is simple, comes with some camera cables, the Arsenal unit.  Just like that.

This is how it looks like.

You will mount it on top of your horseshoe.

Then, you connect the USB cable from the Arsenal to your USB port of your camera.

So long never activate it.  So, for sure need to update the firmware.

The firmware is 427MB.  It will download on the iPhone and then it will be transferred to the Arsenal.

After download, it will take 15-20min to update the firmware on Arsenal.

And it is done.  The app now will search and connect to the Arsenal.

And once found the camera bluetooth, it will load the camera settings.

For the first time after 1 year plus of waiting for the fix of Arsenal firmware to be compatible with my Fujifilm X-T1 (now Jay’s), I see the Arsenal control screen on the app.

Everything is simple.  So, just press the SMART without configure anything on your camera.  You can leave all settings there, because now the camera is SOFTWARE CONTROLLED by the AI.

So hard to get the cat look at the camera.

Sample 1

Wow, you don’t even have to do the focus.  The camera does all these for you.

Then, of course you still need to LR (Lightroom) your photo if you want.  Below is the edited photo.  But the photo above is good enough.

Let’s take the cat photo.  Blue blue, stay put.

Sample 2

Photo taken by Arsenal AI.

After edit by Lightroom, it looks nice.

Sample 3

Another photo taken using Arsenal.

After edit by Lightroom.

Sample 4

This one can see a bit Blue Blue Blue Eyes.

Edit sharper a bit by Lightroom of the same picture.  This one taken using 1/17 sec.

Sample 5

The original is a darker image.

After edited by Lightroom.

Sample 6

Arsenal.

Lightroom.

Conclusions

I think this is a very good tool for beginners or intermediate camera users who wants to learn how to set the Aperture triangle.  Sometime you cannot decide what to use, you can ask Arsenal to take a few sample shots and then try to remember the surrounding lights, situations and remember it into your mind.

I think Jay Jay will benefit from this.

It is a cool product.