Crappy pics out of Microsoft Camera - Lumia 640 XL

[Silver Hammer]

Hi, I've been using Microsoft Lumia 640 XL for quite a while.

I expected good photos to be taken with it (you know, advertised Zeiss lens and all), but almost every picture I take with MS Lumia 640 XL is huge disappointment. I run Windows 10 Mobile. Things usually look nice and promising in Microsoft Camera viewfinder, but once I take a picture and then open it, I see this message for a few seconds - "Adding finishing touches...". As long as those "finishing touches" aren't finished, the picture looks good. Then, when "touches" are done, the picture's colors become liveless and dull. What looks most horrible is people's faces, especially eyes and lips. For instance, my son's eyes, naturally blue, become gray-colored, and lips become same color with skin. And so on and so forth. I guess there's some heavy noise reduction going on here. But I'd rather like to have noisy, but colorful and lively pics than these processed crappy images, which I often find myself deleting because they just look so ugly. To me, the 640 XL's camera is unusable for 90% of the time. I end up carrying some other camera with me, to avoid using 640 XL's one.

So, is there any way to bypass those FINISHING TOUCHES? Maybe different app for camera or something? Has there been a Microsoft's word on this issue? Why would they implement such horrible processing that ruins images to such degree?

 

[Maurizio Troso]

Hi, I've been using Microsoft Lumia 640 XL for quite a while.

I expected good photos to be taken with it (you know, advertised Zeiss lens and all), but almost every picture I take with MS Lumia 640 XL is huge disappointment. I run Windows 10 Mobile. Things usually look nice and promising in Microsoft Camera viewfinder, but once I take a picture and then open it, I see this message for a few seconds - "Adding finishing touches...". As long as those "finishing touches" aren't finished, the picture looks good. Then, when "touches" are done, the picture's colors become liveless and dull. What looks most horrible is people's faces, especially eyes and lips. For instance, my son's eyes, naturally blue, become gray-colored, and lips become same color with skin. And so on and so forth. I guess there's some heavy noise reduction going on here. But I'd rather like to have noisy, but colorful and lively pics than these processed crappy images, which I often find myself deleting because they just look so ugly. To me, the 640 XL's camera is unusable for 90% of the time. I end up carrying some other camera with me, to avoid using 640 XL's one.

So, is there any way to bypass those FINISHING TOUCHES? Maybe different app for camera or something? Has there been a Microsoft's word on this issue? Why would they implement such horrible processing that ruins images to such degree?

Disable HDR in the left option little bar

 

[Silver Hammer]

It is disabled.

 

[oviedofreak82]

You're not leaving HDR on are you? That could cause it to have the finishing touches menu. That and taking multiple pictures at one time. Try the manual mode settings and see what happens. I would also do a soft reset and then try auto mode. I've seen that finishing touches message on my 640 XL but image quality is never compromised.

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

Post processing of the windows camera app as of now is crap. Its not because of HDR. Even if HDR is turned off, the results are still crappy.

 

[Silver Hammer]

You're not leaving HDR on are you? That could cause it to have the finishing touches menu. That and taking multiple pictures at one time. Try the manual mode settings and see what happens. I would also do a soft reset and then try auto mode. I've seen that finishing touches message on my 640 XL but image quality is never compromised.

I keep the HDR option off. Manual mode does not change much (I tried different options, like changing ISO etc.), there's still unpleasant difference between viewfinder live image and the resulting picture, mainly considering colors.

 

[Silver Hammer]

I've just made some screenshots to show what I'm talking about.
Image in the viewfinder:



Image right after shooting, "finishing touches" not yet complete; and then the final image:

 

[apableo]

Yeah, I agree on this topic because my 630 shoots better pictures compare to my 640XL

 

[SocratesG4]

Same problem here...Any suggestions?