Aurga makes DSLR cameras point-and-shoot through AI smarts [Sticky or Not]

For dedicated photographers, the joy of the art is in the small, manually-configured details.

But the rest of us would rather just take nice photos without working very hard. Luckily for the lazy majority, a new tool is hitting the market that promises to do most of the work for us.

Aurga, a smart DSLR assistant that slots into a camera’s hotshoe mount, uses an algorithm that tells the DSLR the best configuration settings under any given light, calculates optimal number of exposures, takes them at different focus positions and merges them into one image.

This foolproof method of photography is already at use in premium smartphones — but importing it to the world of DSLRs gives users the opportunity have their cake and eat it too. They can enjoy both extremely high quality and ease of use.

The team behind Aurga says the tool was trained on a database of hundreds of thousands of professional photos and divides them into specific settings — for instance, landscape or light trails — which users can select from to apply to their own shots.

Aurga also helps capturing scenes with High Dynamic Range (HDR) — meaning a wide range of light and dark — by taking three photos at different exposures and combining them into a single image that provides consistent detail throughout.

But the device isn’t just for beginners, the Aurga team assures. Seasoned photographers can do things like change the exposure by the hour or minute for time-lapse projects.

This is aided by the fact that Aurga users can control their camera from up to 100 feet (30 meters) through the accompanying app. Users can also share photos to social media directly from the app.

Further, the device features its own storage management system and supports up to a 256GB memory card. It can even act as an external charger for a phone, featuring a 2,600mAh battery.

Aurga works with over 60 Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras, listed on their Kickstarter page. The device costs $89 USD (about $112 CAD) with an estimated delivery date of May 2018.

Verdict: Sticky.

I remember when I first picked up a DSLR and thought, “how hard can this be?”

The answer was, and remains, “very hard.”

Smartphones have helped a great deal in this respect, but they undeniably produce less quality results. A tool like this could be of immeasurable help to me and all the others out there who are struggling to produce decent photos as easily as humanly possible.