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Rikk Flohr_Photography
Community Manager
May 23, 2025

P: Introducing the Project Indigo camera app

  • May 23, 2025
  • 406 replies
  • 243946 views

This post applies to the Project Indigo iOS camera app. 

 

Adobe Labs is excited to share an early look at Project Indigo, an iPhone camera app we've started to develop, to get feedback from the photography community. The app offers full manual controls, a more natural ("SLR-like") look, and high image quality in both JPEG and raw formats. It also introduces some new photographic experiences not available in other camera apps. For more information on the underlying technology, please refer to thiProject Indigo blog post.

 

Before you start with Project Indigo 

  • We recommend using Project Indigo on iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max or newer devices.
    (Also supported are 12 Pro/Pro Max, 13 Pro/Pro Max, and all 14-series devices.)
  • You should have at least 1GB of storage space left for the app, the downloadable AI Models inside the app, and for captured photos. 

 

Recipes for success when using Project Indigo 

To get the maximum out of your images captured with the app, follow these guidelines: 

  • When reviewing the results, focus on Project Indigo's more natural look (in both SDR and HDR). If you haven’t done this before, try viewing the images on your laptop or desktop device, preferably on an HDR screen. 
  • Capture with both JPEG and raw DNGs with file saving enabled. Project Indigo produces computational photography DNG files, which have the same natural look as JPEG images, but much more latitude for editing after capture. 
  • Take control of the camera with the built-in Pro Controls, including controls that are exclusive to a computational camera: Frames to Merge and Merge Method. These may be intimidating for beginners, but with Project Indigo, you can try them for free, and nothing will break—you can always reset the settings to ‘Auto’ and let the camera take back control. 
  • Go to the Indigo Labs page and play with the latest innovations our team can offer. These are only available on mobile via Indigo! 
  • Be patient! Project Indigo is doing a lot of heavy lifting under the hood, and it will reward you with great photos. In return, it may ask you for a bit of time to set up captures when needed, and to wait a few seconds for the image processing to finish. 

 

Sending feedback 

Please try the app and share feedback in this community forum thread. If you report a problem you encountered, it would help to include details like which device you are running Project Indigo on, what kind of scene you were trying to capture, what you were trying to achieve with the camera, and as much information as possible about what you like or do not like about the resulting photo quality. Our team will continually monitor this thread to track issues and improve future experiences.  

 

To improve the performance and results of Project Indigo, it is important that examples of images that do not meet your expectations are forwarded to the team via your report.  A large variety of file formats are allowed as attachments in these forum posts. The best option is to attach your image's raw file directly to your feedback post. Note that there is a 50 MB limit on an attachment's file size. If your raw file is too large to attach, the best option is to share the file via a file-sharing service (Dropbox or similar) and then share the link in your feedback post. Thank you for continuing to provide feedback on the Project Indigo camera! 

 

Boris Ajdin: Product Manager, NextCam 
 
Posted by: 

 

    406 replies

    Participating Frequently
    October 25, 2025

    This is my favorite update for the new Indigo app especially running the 17ProMax.

     

    I do not use Lightroom for anything but only used it in the prior version as a conduit to get my raw Indigo files into my editor of choice, capture one.  Image transfers on this new version of the app are seamless and much less clunky. I shoot only raw when using Indigo. If I want to edit the raw file I simply export to the Files app where I have an Indigo folder ready to go.

     

    I go to my Mac open the Indigo folder in the Files app and drag the raw images into my capture one session on the Mac, or on C1 for iPad. When I launch that session I have a recipe saved whereby my Indigo raw files are altered for a great beginning to final edits. 

    A stunning beginning to an updated Indigo app for iPhone 17 Pro Max!

    Participating Frequently
    October 25, 2025

    The new version feedback:
    In the new version of the imaging the white balance tint is shifting towards green.(
    I confirmed this by simultaneously capturing photos with the 16 Pro (version 1.0.4) and the 17 Pro Max (version 1.0.5), whether I use color temperature/tint (at 6600K) or auto.))

    Adobe Employee
    October 27, 2025
    quote

    The new version feedback:
    In the new version of the imaging the white balance tint is shifting towards green.(
    I confirmed this by simultaneously capturing photos with the 16 Pro (version 1.0.4) and the 17 Pro Max (version 1.0.5), whether I use color temperature/tint (at 6600K) or auto.))


    By @enthusiastic_critic1623

    Thank you for sharing your findings. However, to rule out possible causes for the shift, it would be helpful to either use the same version of the app on 2 different devices, or different versions of the app on the same device. If you don't mind repeating the testing like:

    1. 1.0.5 on both 16 Pro and 17 Pro
    2. 1.0.4 and 1.0.5 on 16 Pro

    Thank you for helping us debug this issue!

    Participating Frequently
    October 28, 2025

    Sorry, after your reminder, there is indeed a difference in the display of my two devices. Please ignore my feedback.

    Adobe Employee
    October 24, 2025

    Hi everyone - thank you for being patient with us. We have finally made a build which is working well enough on iPhone 17-series devices. It is in the App Store now and you should be getting an update in a short time, if not already.

     

    This release brings partial support for iPhone 17. Apart from the already discussed problems with the front camera (which is disabled until a fix in iOS 26.1 is released), we have a few other issues on new devices which are listed in the release notes as in the What's New description in the app. These are:

    • There are issues with very noisy captures in Photo mode in low light if ISO is high. We suggest using Night mode to capture such scenes, or lowering ISO to 500 or less.

    • Auto Exposure may flicker in Photo mode in low-light conditions (related to the first bullet point above)

    • 4× telephoto images on 17 Pro and Pro Max devices may exhibit a brighter band toward the bottom of the image.

     

    We are in talks with Apple about the proper solution for these issues. For the first two we think we can have a partial fix from Indigo which we will ship in the next release, but may need some changes from the iOS side for the full fix. For the last one we are investigating further and will let you know if we have a workaround or when a solution may be implemented. Stay tuned.

     

    Hope you like the release and please share your findings, especially on your brand new 17-series devices.

     

    The Indigo Team.

    Participating Frequently
    October 25, 2025

    Hi Boris.  Just to clarify a little. Would front camera on iPhone 17 work with iOS 26.1 beta 4 ?

    thank you

    Known Participant
    October 25, 2025

    I'm running the beta and it does not. I'm just happy I can use PI with the back cameras. Thanks Adobe! The new version seems to work fine so far but more testing tomorrow.

    Participant
    October 24, 2025

    I was wondering about support for flash. I'd love to see that come at some point. Maybe it's tricky to implement properly with the image processing pipeline? 

    Adobe Employee
    October 24, 2025
    quote

    I was wondering about support for flash. I'd love to see that come at some point. Maybe it's tricky to implement properly with the image processing pipeline? 


    By @Oliver V.W

    Flash is difficult to implement for computational photography. Normally a flash is a very short, but very bright burst of light which ensures there is enough light (or provides a desired other effect, e.g., shadows) for a single capture. Indigo does multiple captures for every photo saved (up to 32), so having a short bright flash would not work as most raw frames would still be the same, and a handful would be very bright: aligning and merging all those frames would be very difficult if not impossible. On mobile phones flash can be used as a torch which runs for arbitrarily long period of time BUT which is much dimmer. So it begs the question whether it would be helpful at all. We'll look into ways to incorporate flash into the workflow, but it is not trivial.

    Participant
    October 25, 2025

    I remember Fuxi X100 had amazing fill flash implementation: there was a slight time difference between the flash activating and then camera taking the pictures...dunno if this approach can me mimicked in iPhone

    Participating Frequently
    October 24, 2025

    Any update? It's Friday and still nothing.....

    Participating Frequently
    October 24, 2025

    It's available in the US Apple App Store. Not sure about other countries or regions.

    Participant
    October 24, 2025

    hallo

    ein tolles und gelungenes kamera-app dass ich täglich verwende... wenn ich kann! leider funktiniert es nicht mehr bei meinem neuen iphone 17 promax... und indigo fehlt mir... sehr.

    ich wünsch uns, ich wünsche mir, das ihr das projekt indigo auch auf die neuen iphone 17 und 17 promax zugänglich macht... denn indigo ist das app was die kamera von apple iphone braucht!

    herzliche grüsse,

    rudolf

    Adobe Employee
    October 24, 2025
    quote

    hallo

    ein tolles und gelungenes kamera-app dass ich täglich verwende... wenn ich kann! leider funktiniert es nicht mehr bei meinem neuen iphone 17 promax... und indigo fehlt mir... sehr.

    ich wünsch uns, ich wünsche mir, das ihr das projekt indigo auch auf die neuen iphone 17 und 17 promax zugänglich macht... denn indigo ist das app was die kamera von apple iphone braucht!

    herzliche grüsse,

    rudolf


    By @Rudolf_Steiner4877

    Hallo Rudolf,

     

    Thank you for your message (I'll stick with English as my written German is quite poor) - we released a version of Indigo with support for 17-series devices earlier today. Please try it out and let us know what you think. It does have some limitations which we have listed in the release notes and the 'What's New' welcome screen.

    Participant
    October 22, 2025

    My favorite app, PERIOD ! I love the photos this camera captures and I am so sad I haven't been able to use it with my iPhone 17 Pro! Please don't give up and update as soon as you can so I can start taking my favorite pictures again!!

    Adobe Employee
    October 24, 2025
    quote

    My favorite app, PERIOD ! I love the photos this camera captures and I am so sad I haven't been able to use it with my iPhone 17 Pro! Please don't give up and update as soon as you can so I can start taking my favorite pictures again!!


    By @zach_6412

    iPhone 17-compatible build is up. Please give it a whirl and let us know how it works for you. Note that there are some limitations, which are listed in the release notes on the App Store pages and in the 'What's new' welcome screen.

    Participant
    October 22, 2025

    I noticed that the app white balance (or algorithm) has a tendency to de a blue hue (as you can see in the shared pictures) in the shadow area instead of a black or warmer one. 
    Generally it's this hint that allow me to instantly know if a picture has been taken with project indigo.

    is it an artefact or the intended signature of the computational photography algorithm ?

     

    Participant
    October 22, 2025

    I absolutely love the Project Indigo app! It’s such a relief to finally take photos that look naturally beautiful instead of being over-processed like on the stock app.

     

    However the processing time slows down shooting a lot, especially when you’re out and about capturing moments on the go.

     

    Here’s a simple suggestion = if possible please implement a “Process Later” option.

     

    That way, we could

    • Snap photos freely without waiting for each one to process.
    • Save battery while out and about.
    • Review and process our favorite shots later (for example, when back home while charging).

     

    It would make the shooting experience so much smoother just capture the moment and enjoy it, without missing anything because of the processing time.

    Adobe Employee
    October 22, 2025
    quote

    I absolutely love the Project Indigo app! It’s such a relief to finally take photos that look naturally beautiful instead of being over-processed like on the stock app.

     

    However the processing time slows down shooting a lot, especially when you’re out and about capturing moments on the go.

     

    Here’s a simple suggestion = if possible please implement a “Process Later” option.

     

    That way, we could

    • Snap photos freely without waiting for each one to process.
    • Save battery while out and about.
    • Review and process our favorite shots later (for example, when back home while charging).

     

    It would make the shooting experience so much smoother just capture the moment and enjoy it, without missing anything because of the processing time.


    By @Deulhadj28109761hqsn

    Thank you for sharing this idea - we are indeed looking into something like this. The sheer amount of data Indigo processes for each shot is really large (in Night mode, up to 32 12MP raw frames), and writing all that data to storage each time a photo is captured also requires time and power, so we need to balance all things out. But there are some exciting user experience possibilities with this approach and we are eager to experiment with them.

    Participating Frequently
    October 22, 2025

    I can only assume processing will be a lot faster with iPhone 17 Pros with 512GB of storage or more. It's been proven that the higher capacity iPhone 17's have faster storage speeds.

    Adobe Employee
    October 21, 2025

    Hi everyone. I wanted to share a brief update regarding iPhone 17-series support in Indigo. We are putting finishing touches on a build which will run on those devices and hope to release it within a few days. This build will not support the front camera on iPhone 17 devices - a new build which includes the front camera will be released once iOS 26.1 is released. Thank you all for your patience.

    oskar27
    Participating Frequently
    October 22, 2025

    I really have appreciated the work Adobe put into starting this project, and I changed my default camera to Project Indigo. But I got the iPhone 17 when it was released, and couldn't wait any longer for the update. I switched to Pro-Cam by Tinkerworks. It's been going very well, but I hope the new Project release will win me back. The unreliability for the app support is a big concern when needing a steady go-to that I know will work as expected. Maybe down the road it will move from "project" status to a permanet fixture in the Adobe family of tools.

    Known Participant
    October 22, 2025

    @oskar27 you can always use Halide, or even lightroom mobile raw for your own tuning.