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Rikk Flohr_Photography
Community Manager
Rikk Flohr_PhotographyCommunity Manager
May 23, 2025

P: Introducing the Project Indigo camera app

  • May 23, 2025
  • 406 replies
  • 243908 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. 

 

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

      Show previous replies
      JohanElzenga
      Community Expert
      JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      February 4, 2026

      Again you posted this as a new thread, this time in Lightroom Ecosystem. That is not what was advised. What was advised is that you do not create a new thread, but post your message as a reply in this existing thread:

      https://community.adobe.com/announcements%2D678/p%2Dintroducing%2Dthe%2Dproject%2Dindigo%2Dcamera%2Dapp%2D907947/index4.html

      -- Johan W. Elzenga
      F
      frankr11347277
      Inspiring
      February 4, 2026

      Done.

      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Legend
      February 4, 2026

      [This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.] 

       

      I see the same symptoms. Given that Image Capture shows the same random file names, this looks like a Mac OS / IOS / Indigo problem, unrelated to LR Classic.

       

      Adobe has asked for Indigo feedback to be posted in this thread:

      It appears that Adobe employee Boris Ajdin, the Indigo product manager, participates in that thread.  So you might try posting there.

       

      Out of curiosity, I tried syncing to LR Cloud via the LR Mobile app, but it only syncs the DNG (with the correct file name).

      N
      nhan_8084
      Known Participant
      January 30, 2026

      Low light shot using tele of Indigo and Camac, all auto as usual.  The overall image of Indigo, even the raw is not detailed at all.  Pay attention to the ceiling fan blade, and intricate details of the housing canopy of the light!  
       

      In Camac, you can see the individual lines representing the faux wood grains while Indigo is a bunch of noises.  I can’t even upload the Indigo sooc jpeg here bc of its size saying it is too big!

      https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/o6vfutq5jbknqoz2hzuac/IDG_20260130_080531_174.jpeg?rlkey=sc81risd3brp2log5ec7zlmh0&st=tlmplb0i&dl=0

      N
      nhan_8084
      Known Participant
      January 30, 2026

      This set I have sent before of closet, Indigo is heavily crushed as before, Camac is correctly exposed and have more details.  If you zoom in, both has the same similar luma grains but Camac isn’t smoothed out or soft look.  
       

      The tele from Indigo is absolutely unusable as before, while Camac can render the wordings with noise as expected.  Raws included on both.

       

      It won’t let me upload the tele Indigo sooc jpeg so here it is: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vht38jlxnlkbaneyat8lr/IDG_20260129_213231_348.jpeg?rlkey=ikulzn457h01o9y1ygiitonbv&st=k54glxsr&dl=0

        N
        nhan_8084
        Known Participant
        January 30, 2026

        I know you mentioned that Indigo is a small team, but Camac is only a one person team, and I hate to say this… the jpeg output and raw from all the samples I sent (which is a good amount) are what I expect how jpegs to be tuned, and Camac are better rendered than Indigo so hopefully the team can update it soon.

        N
        nhan_8084
        Known Participant
        January 30, 2026

        This is a crop of tele due to privacy, Camac vs Indigo.  Pay attention to the hair of Indigo, it is crushed shadows and Camac has strands details.

         

        https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f3bq3c0rzvf3pbdwkknms/IMG_2853.png?rlkey=t1gvpt1e0vjg1n7hut5pv31ir&st=aq7lbs17&dl=0

         

        https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1kqxw8p460pu4m1itmmp9/IMG_2854.png?rlkey=iqsn0qxc3mri033lpb50ibury&st=070puzxf&dl=0

        N
        nhan_8084
        Known Participant
        January 30, 2026

        This is indoor and also have white balance issue in Indigo, this time if you hit reset to “all” in LRM, it isn’t proper wb.  Also it’s very underexposed.  The camac dng and jpeg output is correct white balance and expo!

        N
        nhan_8084
        Known Participant
        January 29, 2026

        Here is another set with white balance issue in both Indigo dng and sooc jpeg.  I am pretty confident it has to do with LTM from the AI models because if you reset in LRM to “all”, it becomes normal as how the eyes sees!

        Camac vs Indigo, this time Camac is using SR (super res mode as the dev called it, with 12 frames stacking).

        N
        nhan_8084
        Known Participant
        January 29, 2026

        ​@BorisTheBlade This set shows Camac, Indigo, and stock.  All 3 has incorrect white balance, but Camac is the closest.  I have included the proper raw to jpeg of Indigo to represent the true scene that my eyes sees and it’s settings.

        Indigo raw processed: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9sejd5m648hjmi6v7agxo/IMG_2666.jpeg?rlkey=3pbuee0hkkjh4qxhebw7dj90c&st=waqdznq4&dl=0  This has no LTM of Indigo, I hit reset to all in LRM.

        Settings used:

        https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ka1oc8lzhbfcse8w8ho94/IMG_2667.png?rlkey=muhp7w7apmkakhhnys6o2x7yf&st=fl5kf53w&dl=0
         

        https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/immi8u4wl0hrf3g8eeehx/IMG_2668.png?rlkey=6kh8ricjqaops6whahufvdctx&st=sdldd7yp&dl=0


        https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/lo1c9ddopaskf1qix7opo/IMG_2669.png?rlkey=r19snpxo6yjccwg7uzjuon7t2&st=1eh866aw&dl=0

         

        IMG_2663 dng is Indigo’s raw exported as is, nothing touched.  The bright, oversharpened, warm one is obviously stock.  Rest are Camac’s jpeg, dng, and Indigo’s SOOC jpeg.  Also PLEASE take a close look at how Indigo’s jpeg is heavily heavily crushed black shadows to the point it can’t see the metal beam on the upper left corner where the AC return air duct is.  The processed raw to jpeg show proper shadow, but with a lot of noises due to 0 denoising applied.  Stock is also crushed but not as bad as Indigo, while Camac’s jpeg is hazy and quite underexposed.

        N
        nhan_8084
        Known Participant
        January 29, 2026

        ​@BorisTheBlade here is that comparison made before with the couch pillow patterns.  Camac vs Indigo, main lens, all auto as usual.  If you take both raws to LRM, remove sharpness and denoise, you will see that Camac has more details at max crop and show more correct patterns on the pillows.  I def know Indigo can render this on same level as Camac or greater, and we can’t blame full res downsampling either because Camac do not have access to it!  (Eventhough I did mention that downsampling was turned off in the modded google camera apk).

        There is also some very very unflattering shadow noise if shadows are lifted versus Camac using same values in LRM.  As you can see, Camac even had a expo increase( to make overall image comparible bc its raw is very dim) and shadows are still clean and definitely much much more cleaner than Indigo.

        Looking forward to the new apk pipeline redo, and hopefully less “AI” used.

         

        PS… the site update now limits screenshot png file to only 5mb!  iOS screenshots are much much bigger, no idea why.

         

        https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/07mss5vgh7vcuucrungjz/IMG_2652.png?rlkey=csuuqsduqqdmhav7owdbjx8vu&st=r4654ewx&dl=0

         

        https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3fxcy5w3ainfhfvb6faxz/IMG_2655.png?rlkey=b8b6lghha9av6ye9v2h34h0xa&st=dyuawjhw&dl=0
         

        The screenshot from LRM showed both using HDR edit function as well.

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