Tethered in camera processing - Why?

Hello, I just read the news (dpreview) about Fuji releasing a tethered in camera processing software that should be twice as fast as Silkypix. link - How is such possible? what makes our computers that bad? Just inefficient coding to blame or is the hardware not really suited for our needs?

I am not overly nerdy but would love to get a general idea of how things aren't working. - Thanks in advance

A digital camera is a computer with a light sensor, lens, shutter, etc. The internal computer is optimized for image processing. Secondly, delays in image processing are largely dictated by data transfer, internally or externally.

 

New Fujifilm firmware allows the computer to control internal image processing, in which the image viewed on the attached computer is a proxy, much smaller than the actual raw image. Ultimately the entire image must be transferred to the computer, which is the limiting step.

 

The news release is largely marketing hype, by my estimation. I doubt there is much net end-to-end advantage, compared to processing in a virtual space like Lightroom. Raw processing has no effect on the actual raw file, rather how it is rendered for viewing. It is likely that the internal JPEG conversion is faster, but then you have to transfer both the RAW and JPEG files to the computer. Of more practical interest are the enhanced focusing and camera control features.

Edited November 30, 2017 by Ed_Ingold

And when you transfer both raw and JPEG (because you set the camera for both), one isn't optimally exposed.

"The software adjusts exactly the same parameters as on the camera and supports batch processing and saving conversion profiles."

 

Basically it's just remote adjustment of picture controls - or whatever Fuji calls them. Nothing revolutionary at all.