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P: Introducing the Project Indigo camera app

Forum|Forum|10 months ago
May 23, 2025
373 replies
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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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T

T__L

Participating Frequently

When can we expect the next release? It's been 3 weeks since the last update for the iPhone 17's.

The lack of updates is really off-putting... We understand there's a smaller team working on this app, but how else is the app going to improve without more updates so that we can provide more feedback?

N

nnhuy

Participating Frequently

@BorisTheBlade Hello, I posted here a couple months ago asking about dramatically different saturation levels between the SDR and HDR looks, especially in shots with skies and clouds. I wasn't able to provide .DNGs back then, but now here is a shared folder of several different shots in .DNG+.JPG further demonstrating the problem. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WFa2mTelBAp9VVWXIg4lVGCOvenyRrUj?usp=sharing

Again, I don't have an opinion on which look is correct. I just do not want there to be drastic changes in image "feel" when switching between SDR and HDR, especially because iOS/MacOS will also freely swap between variants with changing low-power-mode, ambient lighting, etc.

C

Capture66

Participant

I switched from a 15 Pro to a 17 Pro and I can confirm that the results are clearly more hit & miss with the 17P. This is about the JPEG output only. WB completely off for no apparent reason (on auto) and a occasional 'over the top' HDR effect. On the 15P Pi's output was more consistant.

Using Pi for a few weeks now, I'm amazed how stunning the images can look. That said, comparing shots from the Apple app, Pi and the real life scene, it seems that Pi leans towards 'bigger than life' tone and colour rendering. To me the images often look more saturated, vibrant and more contrasty/dramatic than the scene in front of the camera. Gorgeous without question but not necessarily accurate. Or is that just me? (again, this is about the JPEG output)

N

nhan_8084

Participating Frequently

Thanks for confirming what I have been saying as well on my 17 Pro Max to
let the team knows it’s not just me or personal preference! The more
reports like these, the devs will realize there’s really issue with JPEG
outputs and needs fixing asap!

photopoeth

Inspiring

I have just dicovered that Pi doesn't write the camera direction into the EXIF data. It's a minor issue but maybe it is not the only data field that gets stripped. So checking if all metadata available gets written to the file maybe is worth putting on the todo list for the future.

photopoeth

Inspiring

SORRY for posting this. Unfortunately I cannot delete this posting. I just found that this issue has been discussed a couple of days ago. So please ignorieren this posting.

------------ ignore below -----------

How does SR work with DNG-only? Is it really the case that you can only achieve 12 MP at 2x zoom on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, for example, as a JPG, and end up with only 3 MP with DNG-only?

I'm sorry, but I have to admit that I don't seem to have fully understood the SR concept in Pi yet. Why can't you use the 48 MP mode and then the 12 MP crop in 2x zoom mode with Pi?

T

T__L

Participating Frequently

When can we expect the next update? I feel like photos from the app from my 16 Pro took sharper photos.

B

BorisTheBlade

Adobe Employee

When can we expect the next update? I feel like photos from the app from my 16 Pro took sharper photos.

By @T__L

To clarify, are you saying that Indigo on 16 Pro took sharper photos than indigo on your new 17-series device?

T

T__L

Participating Frequently

That is correct, Indigo on my 16 Pro took sharper photos than Indigo on my 17 Pro.

I don't have my 16 Pro anymore of course so I can't really create new comparisons right now.

S

Sweet Light

Participating Frequently

Still curious, has anyone else experience significant loss in file size? During a recent shoot, the 48mm and 200 mm created files that were 1512 X 2016 pixels, or about 3 MP. This is a significant reduction in file size. The iPhone 17 Pro was on a monopod, but there was slight movement of the camera even on the monopod.

- 60 Years Photo Experience 4th Generation Photographer - Digital: various ILC starting 2003, Lighroom 1.0 & PS 6.0 up to current versions, plus InDesign & Illustrator , Analog: 35mm, 120, 4X5, 8X10 size Cameras, 24 inch process camera, Darkroom B&W, E-6 Ektachrome + Type C Prints

B

BorisTheBlade

Adobe Employee

Still curious, has anyone else experience significant loss in file size? During a recent shoot, the 48mm and 200 mm created files that were 1512 X 2016 pixels, or about 3 MP. This is a significant reduction in file size. The iPhone 17 Pro was on a monopod, but there was slight movement of the camera even on the monopod.

By @Sweet Light

When you zoom in with digital zoom of 2x or more we employ multi-image super-resolution to recover the 2x of resolution drop. However, this can be turned off in the settings. To verify that it is still active, your 2x zoom button in Indigo should have an 'SR' badge on the top right. If it doesn't then this option has been disabled. You can enable it from the settings by swiping left on the histogram, clicking on the gear Settings icon and making sure the 'Burst SR' toggle is on.

Note that if you use Long Exposure (via Pro Controls in Night mode) super-resolution is NOT active, so the raw file size will be reduced.

K

Ken33218701tsjb

Participant

Thanks for your explanation. It seems like the dramatic reduction, 12 MP to 3 MP, more than offsets any gain the SR might provide. The net result is the opposite of what a photographer would expect SR to do.

On another note, Adobe should be applauded for allowing the user to participate in the development of computational photography. I have been involved in photography for over 60 years. Digital photography was a revolution in photographic technology and computational photography seems to be an exciting development. I am looking forward to experiencing what Indigo has in store for the future.

L

lvogt48

Participating Frequently

I have found that Pi heats up my 15 pro significantly. Too hot.

Paul D Wenlock

Participant

Good afternoon. Is there any way to get the raw and jpg files created by project Indigo to have the same file name. Currently they get allocated different file names which means you have to change the view order in Bridge to see the raw and jpg file side by side

B

BorisTheBlade

Adobe Employee

Good afternoon. Is there any way to get the raw and jpg files created by project Indigo to have the same file name. Currently they get allocated different file names which means you have to change the view order in Bridge to see the raw and jpg file side by side

By @Paul D Wenlock

Bridge uses PTP/MPT protocol, which limits the filename to 8 characters (+3 for extension), so it tends to assign random names to files. I am talking to the Bridge team about the possibility to try and modernize this, but in the meantime you can use the Advanced settings in the Photo Downloader to do batch renaming.

mopperle

Inspiring

With the default iPhone camera app, I often use the so called "Burst Mode" by swiping the shutter button to the left to begin taking photos in rapid succession. Is something like this planned for Indigo?

E

enthusiastic_critic1623

Participating Frequently

Apologies for bringing up issues with the new version again. After extensive shooting tests and feedback from social media, I've confirmed that the final images in version 1.0.5 exhibit white balance drift (color temperature shifts toward blue, while tint shifts toward green). This occurs regardless of whether fixed color temperature/tint settings or auto mode is used.
I'm currently unable to provide comparison photos, as both my phones have already been updated to version 1.0.5.

C

Capture66

Participant

I've been using Pi for a few weeks on my 15P and I'm very impressed so far. The image quality is just stunning and unlike anything I've seen from an iPhone, ever. The layout from the app and the controls are excellent and easy to get used to. Love it. Besides the silly Photo & Night mode living in two places on the same screen that is... 🙂
Can't wait for ProRaw support and Apple to open up 48MP!

While I fully understand that Pi is designed to work seamlessly with the Adobe suite... I really, REALLY hope Pi will keep on working outside the 'Adobe subscription regime' as well, as it does today. I'm more than willing to pay for a camera app this good as long as I'm not forced to move everything over to the Adobe Cloud. Lured into... fine. Forced into, not so much. Fingers crossed I guess.

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