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Rikk Flohr_Photography
Community Manager
Rikk Flohr_PhotographyCommunity Manager
Community Manager
May 23, 2025
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P: Introducing the Project Indigo camera app

  • May 23, 2025
  • 354 replies
  • 225567 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: 

 

      354 replies

      Show previous replies
      V
      Vibrant_Spirit3106
      Participant
      September 19, 2025

      I'm excited for whenever you make Indigo work on iPhone 17 Pro. 

        P
        Precious_Forest2453
        Participant
        September 19, 2025

        Hi - loving project indigo... please add support for iPhone 17 models!!

         

         Thank you. 

          K
          kian35508655xuim
          Participant
          September 19, 2025

          Hi,

          Been using the app for the past month or so. Have captured some truly great photos. Every person has mentioned how good the photos look and can't believe it's from my phone. I have noticed that having the app open, then turning your phone off, turning your phone back on it doesn't load the app properly and you have to close and re-open. This doesn't happen every time just some times. And sometimes you just need to wait several seconds for it to load.

           

          I just got the new iPhone 17 Pro and was wondering if there is a date for when I can use my phone with the app as it doesn't currently support the iPhone 17 line of phones?

           

          Thanks,

          Kian

            B
            Adobe Employee
            BorisTheBlade
            Adobe Employee
            September 19, 2025
            quote

            Hi,

            Been using the app for the past month or so. Have captured some truly great photos. Every person has mentioned how good the photos look and can't believe it's from my phone. I have noticed that having the app open, then turning your phone off, turning your phone back on it doesn't load the app properly and you have to close and re-open. This doesn't happen every time just some times. And sometimes you just need to wait several seconds for it to load.

             

            I just got the new iPhone 17 Pro and was wondering if there is a date for when I can use my phone with the app as it doesn't currently support the iPhone 17 line of phones?

             

            Thanks,

            Kian


            By @kian35508655xuim

            Thank you Kian. We are working on improving the stability of the app such that events like what you describe (the app not launching properly) do not appear anymore. The next update we are about to launch should be already better in that respect. Regarding iPhone 17 support, since we do completely custom processing, we need to calibrate all aspects of the camera, and that takes some time. Since we didn't get any devices in advance to prepare a compatibility release, we now have to wait for regualar deliveries. I am afraid I am not able to give a precise date as we have to see if the new devices have any peculiarities which may require us to modify our calibration procedure, but it should be measured in days, not weeks.

              B
              Adobe Employee
              BorisTheBlade
              Adobe Employee
              September 19, 2025

              A short announcement for the board - iPhone 17-series support is coming soon. The team is just getting the devices, and since we are using our own processing we need to do full camera calibration for all variants which will take a few days. We will release an updated app as soon as this is ready. Thank you to all early adopters for your patience.

                M
                Moonboots22
                Participating Frequently
                September 19, 2025

                Boris, will the update simply be for 17 series compatibility, or will it be a larger update to include some of the features on the roadmap you've discussed on the forum over past weeks?

                B
                Adobe Employee
                BorisTheBlade
                Adobe Employee
                September 19, 2025
                quote

                Boris, will the update simply be for 17 series compatibility, or will it be a larger update to include some of the features on the roadmap you've discussed on the forum over past weeks?


                By @Moonboots22

                We are almost there with shipping an update which includes new features and fixes. iPhone 17 compatibility work will follow soon thereafter.

                L
                leophoto_123
                Participant
                September 19, 2025

                Indigo is great! 

                Could we get the ability to save to HEIF instead of JPG? The JPG base files are quite large at around 4MB, while the HEIF could reduced by half or more. I've tried doing it myself but the HDR is tricky to get right (SDR looks fine though). 

                Thanks for the great work project indigo team. 

                M
                Moonboots22
                Participating Frequently
                September 19, 2025

                Not to hijack the comment here, but you may want to look into the app "NoRaw" on the App Store. Assuming you're shooting JPEG+DNG in Indigo, the app will identify any Raw files or Photo pairs (Raw+DNG) and convert in batch to HEIF, preserving HDR. I've used it for awhile now to mass convert 48mp ProRaw files from the stock camera into HEIF, preserving ProRaw color science and detail. I think it's a $3 one time purchase and would solve your problem here.

                B
                Adobe Employee
                BorisTheBlade
                Adobe Employee
                September 19, 2025
                quote

                Not to hijack the comment here, but you may want to look into the app "NoRaw" on the App Store. Assuming you're shooting JPEG+DNG in Indigo, the app will identify any Raw files or Photo pairs (Raw+DNG) and convert in batch to HEIF, preserving HDR. I've used it for awhile now to mass convert 48mp ProRaw files from the stock camera into HEIF, preserving ProRaw color science and detail. I think it's a $3 one time purchase and would solve your problem here.


                By @Moonboots22

                The truth is that HEIF/HEIC format requires a license, so we are using JPEG which is free to use. Regarding using 3rd party tools to convert Indigo DNGs to other formats, that will of course work in creating an image, but it will not preserve all the metadata and look information we embed into the DNG. While our DNGs are of course fully standard-compliant, only Adobe tools (Camera Raw and Lightroom) honor all the embedded metadata properly. As a consequence, you will get an image which looks much different (and much poorer) than the Indigo JPEG.

                MarkStothard
                MarkStothard
                Participating Frequently
                September 19, 2025

                iPhone 17, that's 7, 17 Pro, and Air. Support, please!

                 

                Mark Stothard MA ARPS
                G
                guangyao_4792
                Participant
                September 19, 2025

                Indigo is amazing! Thanks for releasing such a good product. But I found Project Indigo do not support new iphone 17 series. Is there any plan for supporting iphone 17 series? Can't wait to use this powerful app on my new iphone.

                  E
                  EvelynR
                  Participant
                  September 19, 2025

                  Will iPhone 17 support be added?

                    M
                    matt.adams
                    Participant
                    September 19, 2025

                    Hi, Any detail on when the iPhone 17 series will be supported?

                      S
                      StevenErat
                      Inspiring
                      September 18, 2025

                      Sometimes it's not always convenient to edit in Lightroom after shooting in Indigo, and I would use the native iPhone (16 Pro Max, iOS 18.6.2) Photos app for quick changes, say cropping. I noticed that when I edit a JPEG+RAW file in Photos that a slight magenta/purple tint color shift occurs globally upon save, even if the only change is cropping. On revert, the color cast is removed.

                      Is there away to avoid this other than following the Lightroom workflow? Thank you.

                      See example:  https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hvnl8cltl4rc97bjvgobn/Indigo-color-cast-on-change-in-photos-app.mov?rlkey=39ggda1cqw4w7jdaedu1ryf9v&st=44owji9n&dl=0

                      B
                      Adobe Employee
                      BorisTheBlade
                      Adobe Employee
                      September 19, 2025
                      quote

                      Sometimes it's not always convenient to edit in Lightroom after shooting in Indigo, and I would use the native iPhone (16 Pro Max, iOS 18.6.2) Photos app for quick changes, say cropping. I noticed that when I edit a JPEG+RAW file in Photos that a slight magenta/purple tint color shift occurs globally upon save, even if the only change is cropping. On revert, the color cast is removed.

                      Is there away to avoid this other than following the Lightroom workflow? Thank you.

                      See example:  https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hvnl8cltl4rc97bjvgobn/Indigo-color-cast-on-change-in-photos-app.mov?rlkey=39ggda1cqw4w7jdaedu1ryf9v&st=44owji9n&dl=0


                      By @StevenErat

                      This is a known issue in iOS 18. Apple fixed this problem in iOS 26, and we are waiting for more users to test it to verify that it is indeed completely resolved. Note that the Apple Photos app edits the JPEG version of the image, not the DNG, whereas when you open the image in Lightroom the DNG will be edited.

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