P: Introducing the Project Indigo camera app

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

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 
 
Posted by: 

[Russ Wright]

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.

[BorisTheBlade]

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

thank you

By @default0i09akcya5ak

Front camera will require another version of the app AND official release of iOS 26.1.

[Jay Levine Media]

Thank you. Just in case anyone has a issue with the download, when I went to the App Store, it just showed open not update. I simply deleted the app, went back to the app store, did a download and it worked. Thanks to the team for the work to get this done.

[Gareth Renowden]

Thanks for all the hard work getting this out. I updated the app, but on first launch the camera was dark - all controls working, but as if I'd left the lens cap on. Quit and relaunch fixed it...

[nhan_8084]

Thank you for the team's great effort and speedy release.  I have tested in daylight mostly and it behaves the same as what I used on my 15 Pro Max.  Hoping for the next update to have improvements on the actual tuning of jpeg or custom settings since this release is more focused on the 17 series compatibility and some bug fixes.  Just want to remind the team that SR of 2x and 10x still have a lot of merge artifacts/misalignment when motion scene is involved of people and objects, and lots of mushing.

[enthusiastic_critic1623]

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.))

[BorisTheBlade]

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!

[chrisd40442477]

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!

[cutch2222]

I would like to see the camera settings on each of the example photos. (In particular the dynamic range example of the couple sitting in front of a window)  I am unable to match results even when setting lowest ISO, longest shutter and/or 32 image stack. 

[Generous_problem1425]

Hi - enjoying PI a lot, but (just out of interest) took a macro shot of the top of my kitchen table. Reporting, with attached .dng file, because if you look at the bottom left of the image there's some weird purple noise. iPhone 15 pro max.

[BorisTheBlade]

Hi - enjoying PI a lot, but (just out of interest) took a macro shot of the top of my kitchen table. Reporting, with attached .dng file, because if you look at the bottom left of the image there's some weird purple noise. iPhone 15 pro max.

By @Generous_problem1425

Thank you for helping us test the app. Unfortunately, the DNG file did not get attached... I have been bugging the forum plaform provider to enable DNG upload but it still does not seem to be working. *sigh* If you don't mind, can you try to attach it to your message again, and if that doesn't work, add it to a file sharing service (e.g., Google Drive)? Thank you very much!

[demo_5934]

Hi developers, thanks for making such a powerful app! Not sure if it's an Indigo or iOS Lightroom bug, I noticed inconsistant lens distortion corrections behaviour. After exporting Indigo RAW to iOS Lightroom,

1. Main camera, toggling "Enable lens corrections" only affects vignettee/tone. There is no lens distortion corrections. By comparasion, toggling "Enable lens corrections" on Lightroom RAW will apply distortion correction and one can easily see the differneces in the ceter area.

2. Ultra wide camera, toggling "Enable lens corrections" does apply vignettee/tone+distortion corrections, however, the distortion correction is different from that on Lightroom RAW. Indigo applies more corrections at the corners.

[demo_5934]

Forgot to mention, device: iPhone 17 Pro Max, iOS Lightroom version: 11.0.0

[c-oliff]

I have a Japan iPhone 17 and opening the app just continually emits the shutter click sound... it can't be muted or turned off so the app is currently unusable 😞 This issue was present in the previous version when I had an iPhone 14 too. Hope Adobe engineers can fix this!

[wok4_new]

Good morning!

I just downloaded PI to may new iPhone 17Pro, and I am not able to figure out how to set the camera resolution to 48MPix - which,  strongly believe, was working on my iPhne 15 Pro.

Thanke for help!

Wolfgang

[BorisTheBlade]

Good morning!

I just downloaded PI to may new iPhone 17Pro, and I am not able to figure out how to set the camera resolution to 48MPix - which,  strongly believe, was working on my iPhne 15 Pro.

Thanke for help!

Wolfgang

By @wok4_new

Hi Wolfgang - Indigo does not support more than 12MP capture. I believe you were either using the native camera app or another 3rd party camera app to capture Apple's ProRaw. We are looking into adding some form of 48MP support for Indigo, but that is not available yet.

[t.linn]

I really do hope you figure out how to achieve 48MP captures on the iPhone Pros which are capable of that resolution. PI transformed my attitude about smartphone photography, but it hurts to sacrifice resolution to use it. (iPhone 17 Pro here.)

[t.linn]

I'm seeing a notice that a survey should be available in the Settings area. Having just downloaded and opened v1.0.5 of the app, I am eager to participate. However, I can't find it. Where is it? I've looked in both the Settings section of the app, and the app settings in the Settings app. I don't see it anywhere.