How fast is picture finishing touches

[mijacs]

I have a Lumia 950 and the finishing touches can take 5-8 seconds sometimes. Normally it is not a big deal but it can stop me from taking more than ~12 shots close together.

A few questions for Lumia 950xl owners:
1. How long does the picture finishing touches take approx?
2. With rich capture on, can you take quite a few more than 12 in succession before you see a Saving screen?
3. Once you see the Saving screen how long does must you wait before taking another shot?
Thanks

 

[rkamp]

For me, my 950 XL is taking about 8 photos before the "Saving..." comes up. It takes about 9-10 seconds for it to go away.
I have tried both saving to local and SD card and it is about the same time. Picture finishing seems to only take a seconds.

 

[mijacs]

So that sounds like it is the same with both phones. I wonder what causes it. I have tried internal vs external storage, switching from 16mp to 8mp, and nothing was affected significantly.

Btw, I did not have flash on for my last test so maybe that allowed a few more. Or maybe I should not try testing this just before bed.

Without rich capture on, it seemed to be better although I swear it had the same behaviour at one point.

 

[Musicman247]

I've noticed finishing increase in time from a few seconds to 10-20 seconds after telling the phone to save photos to SD card. Don't know if it's the phone or the card. My guess is the card. Hoping I didn't get a knockoff Sandisk from Amazon.

Edit: Just took a pic indoors, rich capture off, flash off, saving to the phone and it took less than a second for the "finishing touches".

 

[dKp1977]

So that sounds like it is the same with both phones. I wonder what causes it. I have tried internal vs external storage, switching from 16mp to 8mp, and nothing was affected significantly.

Btw, I did not have flash on for my last test so maybe that allowed a few more. Or maybe I should not try testing this just before bed.

Without rich capture on, it seemed to be better although I swear it had the same behaviour at one point.

You wonder what's causing it? Are you serious? Oo You're just reaching the limits of what the hardware is capable of. Just think about what is actually happening, when you're taking a picture:

The moment you snap it, it's passed to post processing, which is happening in the back so that you can continue taking additional photos. The processing takes some time, I'd guess somewhere around 0.5 to 1 second(s). If you continue taking pictures in a quick succession, these pictures stack up. Only one image at a time is post processed. Which means that batch of pictures still waiting for being processed is kept in the RAM of your device. Upon reaching a certain point, the app or probably even the OS itself just stops you from adding further pictures to the batch to maintain overall OS stability.

 

[shaunydub]

it is better than my 1520 running latest W10, that's good enough for now.
Hope for more improvements as software is updated.

 

[mijacs]

You wonder what's causing it? Are you serious? Oo You're just reaching the limits of what the hardware is capable of. Just think about what is actually happening, when you're taking a picture:

I am a software developer that loves algorithms so yes I am curious. Your explanation does not really explain what is causing the issue. If it only takes <1 sec to post process then the user should be free to take another picture at that time but that is not the case. Also it does not seem to matter if the output is big or small so it probably is not when writing unless there is a silly bug. I am guessing that the offending algorithm is using the input data. I might see if I can get my phone to tell me what is happening tonight or I might just play games...

I started this thread to find out if the Lumia 950xl was better than the Lumia 950 in this instance. The answer is no so that would not be a reason to buy the xl version instead.

 

[dKp1977]

I am a software developer that loves algorithms so yes I am curious. Your explanation does not really explain what is causing the issue. If it only takes <1 sec to post process then the user should be free to take another picture at that time but that is not the case. Also it does not seem to matter if the output is big or small so it probably is not when writing unless there is a silly bug. I am guessing that the offending algorithm is using the input data. I might see if I can get my phone to tell me what is happening tonight or I might just play games...

I started this thread to find out if the Lumia 950xl was better than the Lumia 950 in this instance. The answer is no so that would not be a reason to buy the xl version instead.

You can take like 10 pictures within about 3 seconds. 10 pictures need roughly 10 seconds until each of them is post processed and saved. So there's 7 seconds remaining, assuming 10 batched images is the limit until the "saving"-screen kicks in.

 

[mijacs]

You can take like 10 pictures within about 3 seconds. 10 pictures need roughly 10 seconds until each of them is post processed and saved. So there's 7 seconds remaining, assuming 10 batched images is the limit until the "saving"-screen kicks in.

You can take pictures every few seconds and still get the Saving screen. And once you hit the Saving screen you can only take a picture once every 5-8 seconds. Try it out. If that is not the case for you then I am interested.

 

[dKp1977]

You can take pictures every few seconds and still get the Saving screen. And once you hit the Saving screen you can only take a picture once every 5-8 seconds. Try it out. If that is not the case for you then I am interested.

I should receive my XL tomorrow. Once I've set it up, I'm gonna give it a try and report back.

 

[Musicman247]

Tested this today. Took 12 shots in rapid succession before the Saving showed up for less than a second. Took another, then it showed for about a second before disappearing. 950XL, flash off, rich capture off.

 

[dKp1977]

Tested this today. Took 12 shots in rapid succession before the Saving showed up for less than a second. Took another, then it showed for about a second before disappearing. 950XL, flash off, rich capture off.

Sounds acceptable to me. I wouldn't even really care if it took 5 to 10 seconds until we're able to continue taking pictures. In the end, it's still just a smartphone, not a DSLR.

 

[Paolo Cardelli]

Disable Rich Capture.
No more waits

 

[mijacs]

Disable Rich Capture.
No more waits

I did get the Saving screen without Rich Capture but it was after 20+ pictures on my L950.
So yes, if I plan on taking lots of pictures then I will turn off Rich Capture

Edit: I just held down before burst (with rich, flash, and living images disabled) and was able to get 15 pictures in a row and then it made me wait ~4 seconds to take each picture after that.

 

[Musicman247]

Just an update. Just turned off Living Images and Rich Capture. I have not seen a "Finishing Touches" message when switching to the viewer since. 950XL.

 

[Paolo Cardelli]

Just an update. Just turned off Living Images and Rich Capture. I have not seen a "Finishing Touches" message when switching to the viewer since. 950XL.

I disabled Rich Capture only, and even with Living Images ON, no more "Finishing Touches" for me neither

 

[anon(8966963)]

What does Rich Capture do exactly?

 

[mijacs]

What does Rich Capture do exactly?

It takes more than one picture when you tell it too so it can add extra details to the picture.

For outdoor pictures this can allow detail where it would normally look washed out. For indoor (low light), it can add back detail to a normally blurt shot.
For flash pictures it can blend between a more washed out picture and a dark picture.

Read Juha's blog post:
https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2015/10/15/camera-magic-on-microsoft-lumia-950-and-lumia-950-xl/

Try it out! It really can enhance your photos in ways you normally could not.