Community Manager

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P: Introducing the Project Indigo camera app

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
May 23, 2025
361 replies
232565 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 this Project 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.

Download the app from the App Store.
Check out the Project Indigo FAQ, which is updated regularly with new explanations.

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

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Curtis Hight

Participant

In the blog post (Marc Levoy and Florian Kainz, “Project Indigo - a computational photography camera app,” Adobe, June 13, 2025), as I read down, I saw the slow-drip water photos, then the external strobe, and then the words “As a fun example of how our manual controls can be used….” Excitement stirred in my heart that the following words would say something about an upcoming version of Indigo supporting electronic strobe synchronization. Alas, not. But I hope so!

B

BorisTheBlade

Adobe Employee

In the blog post (Marc Levoy and Florian Kainz, “Project Indigo - a computational photography camera app,” Adobe, June 13, 2025), as I read down, I saw the slow-drip water photos, then the external strobe, and then the words “As a fun example of how our manual controls can be used….” Excitement stirred in my heart that the following words would say something about an upcoming version of Indigo supporting electronic strobe synchronization. Alas, not. But I hope so!

By @Curtis Hight

Hi Curtis - thank you for your thoughts. Indigo doesn't yet support strobe synchronization, but we can add it to the list of feature asks and consider it in a future version.

@

@sydneylow

Inspiring

Does the JPEG file contain a depth map that's passed onto Lightroom to add "Blur"?

B

BorisTheBlade2

Participating Frequently

Does the JPEG file contain a depth map that's passed onto Lightroom to add "Blur"?

By @@sydneylow

Hello,

JPEGs produced by the Indigo camera do not yet contain a depth map which Lightroom can use for the Lens Blur feature. We will be investigating adding a depth map to files captured by Indigo in the future.

N

nhan_8084

Participating Frequently

@BorisTheBlade , apple allows lidar for AR use, will PI be able to use that information to create true depth map vs the computational depth of google camera? That would be much easier vs training ML models, and needing hundreds of photos data on a server like what google did for their portrait matting.

R

ronh45669430

Participant

HI, this app looks amazing but I only have an IPhone 11 Pro Max. Does this mean I can't use the app with this phone?

B

BorisTheBlade2

Participating Frequently

HI, this app looks amazing but I only have an IPhone 11 Pro Max. Does this mean I can't use the app with this phone?

By @ronh45669430

Hello - for the time being, Indigo camera requires at least a 12 Pro/Pro Max device to run. For better experience we recommend using 15 Pro/Pro Max or newer models.

N

nhan_8084

Participating Frequently

10x super res zoom on my 15 pro max has a lot of merge artifacts. Also when facing against hdr, it has heavy underexposure and tint issue, and wb is too warm vs realistic scene as shown in pro mode vs auto.

N

nhan_8084

Participating Frequently

@BorisTheBlade2 Please respond or if I could

reach an engineer to discuss?

B

BorisTheBlade

Adobe Employee

@BorisTheBlade2 Please respond or if I could

reach an engineer to discuss?

By @nhan_8084

About the first example (merge artifacts for 10x super-res zoom), they can appear, more so in Night mode, if the subject is moving during capture. We will be further tuning and optimizing the super-res algorithm to minimize such occurences.

On the white balance, Indigo does not emply a custom AWB. Instead, it uses AWB routine provided by the OS. Sometimes it can be off, which is when using Pro controls can help to achieve good WB quickly: you can simply tap on a neutral grey colored object and WB will be set correctly.

R

Ray Moss

Participant

Thanks for taking imaging to another level! Looking forward to seeing how further computational photography develops.

I'm testing the app out on my iPhone 15 max pro. Stopped by the beach and took 8-10 test images. My iPhone started giving me an overheating notice after that and I could feel it getting very hot.

I was shooting in 90 degree tropical weather, and tried the 'sr' features, probably the intense processing required caused it to overheat.

P

powerful_Elixir5E29

Participating Frequently

i think it still needs some optimization because even when i was inside my phone got hot after 5 images and it showed me a warning and started crashing. Im using iphone 14.

M

mikej4252593

Inspiring

It's the same for me on an iPhone 16 Pro

G

gregbenz

Inspiring

Indigo is amazing!

I just published a detailed review and tutorial on it at https://gregbenzphotography.com/photography-reviews/project-indigo-the-best-camera-app-for-smart-phones/

H

Harald5C31

Participant

As usual - Greg was right on the spot. Great betaApp, great review

J

JUNSHENG_ZENG6158

Participant

I’m writing to report an issue with continuous shutter-click sounds when using Project Indigo in Japan.

In Photo mode, Indigo continuously buffers short-exposure frames even before I press the shutter, so iOS plays the mandatory camera-shutter sound for every buffered frame. Because Japanese carriers require an audible click for each still-image capture, this results in a rapid “click-click-click” sequence at roughly three to four clicks per second, long before any photo is taken. The sound is loud and confusing.

What I expected was a single shutter sound, only at the moment the final photo is captured. Instead, the pre-capture pipeline makes the app practically unusable in many everyday situations here.

To improve the experience, please consider batching the shutter sound so it plays only once per composite capture, providing a toggle to disable or limit pre-capture when the device is in Japan, or switching the buffer to a silent video stream until the user actually presses the shutter. Even a brief notice in the settings or FAQ, explaining why the clicks occur and how to minimize them, would help.

B

BorisTheBlade2

Participating Frequently

I’m writing to report an issue with continuous shutter-click sounds when using Project Indigo in Japan.

In Photo mode, Indigo continuously buffers short-exposure frames even before I press the shutter, so iOS plays the mandatory camera-shutter sound for every buffered frame. Because Japanese carriers require an audible click for each still-image capture, this results in a rapid “click-click-click” sequence at roughly three to four clicks per second, long before any photo is taken. The sound is loud and confusing.

What I expected was a single shutter sound, only at the moment the final photo is captured. Instead, the pre-capture pipeline makes the app practically unusable in many everyday situations here.

To improve the experience, please consider batching the shutter sound so it plays only once per composite capture, providing a toggle to disable or limit pre-capture when the device is in Japan, or switching the buffer to a silent video stream until the user actually presses the shutter. Even a brief notice in the settings or FAQ, explaining why the clicks occur and how to minimize them, would help.

By @JUNSHENG_ZENG6158

Hello,

Thank you for reporting this issue. Indigo camera runs a constant stream of raw frames during viewfinding and stores them temporarily in a buffer. When a shutter button is pressed, we combine several of those frames into one photo and we issue a shutter sound. However, in Japan and South Korea there is a requirement that every raw photo request to iOS must issue a shutter sound, even if that raw frame is not used for the capture. That is why our viewfinder sounds like it is constantly "capturing" photos. The only workaround we can offer for the time being is to turn off the sound on the device.

S

Steve K Walker

Inspiring

I'm in South Korea. The workaround offered is not a possibility. Because the shutter sound is a legal requirement, it cannot be turned off. The volume is also not adjustable. So everyone in Japan and South Korea will hear the loud shutter clicks. This makes the app unusable. I can't see how you are going to manage to get around this one. Such a pity. I was so looking forward to a decent photo app.

T

Tony_Tam

Participant

I notice that Indigo is still not available in non-US App Store, like in Asia Hong Kong region. I wonder if Adobe can release it as well for ours. Thanks!

Z

Zhe3071965392i1

Participating Frequently

It's not available in Japan, either. We really hope to give it a try.

A

ameliad90885250

Participant

Any idea when this might be available for Android?

B

BorisTheBlade2

Participating Frequently

Hello - thank you for reaching out to us and your insterest in Project Indigo. The app is in its early stages of development, with the main goal for us to get feedback from the community. We will continue to explore opportunities to expand access to more platforms in the future.

P

powerful_Elixir5E29

Participating Frequently

Will adobe improve the performance of the app? I mean HDR+ ran for just 1sec on pixel 3 per photo.

P

powerful_Elixir5E29

Participating Frequently

You don't know how much time I have been waiting for this camera app to become reality. I still remember Marc talking about his vision for this app back in 2020. Now that I have tried it on my iPhone 14 all I can say about it is that the image quality is amazing! Good job! The issue I have encountered with the app is mostly related to performance though. Because I know android devices with much lower specs and slower processing and less power could run gcam faster to take photos in daytime or nighttime I think this app could better be optimized because currently it uses a lot of power and I mean it makes my iphone 14 hot to the touch in seconds and one image takes approx 10-15sec to be processed which on a budget android phone with gcam takes no more than 5 seconds and doesn't make the phone crash and burning hot but I guess that's to be expected given that it is the first version and it just came out. I really hope you optimized the performance aspect of it further because this is what currently stops me from using it for more than one pic a day on my iphone 14.

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