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: 

[photopoeth]

Here's my "wish list" for the future

Since I take it for granted that you will get the problem of overheating under control, I asked myself what functions I would like to see in my future goto camera. I came up with three things - at least for now ;):

1. It would be fantastic if you could optionally set the reference point for focus and the reference point for exposure separately. I love this feature in the ProCamera app, my current goto camera app. Here's a screenshot (1=focus, 2=exposure):

2. Pls add the focus stacking feature ASAP.

3. Please add a button to dim/brighten (max) the screen. What? Why? Glad you ask, here's the explanation:

I think it's a common issue (especially on sunny days) when you're on a photo tour with your iPhone for a long time. You have 2 options: Either you dim the screen (then it gets less hot and uses less power), but then you can hardly see anything when taking photos. Or you can set the screen to bright, which quickly leads to overheating and a flat battery.

Unfortunately, switching the brightness while taking photos is very cumbersome using the system tools. It would therefore be nice if there was such a button in the camera app.

So you could leave the screen dimmed and only make it as bright as possible for a short time when needed and then immediately dim it again.

Best regards and keep up the good work, Thomas

[Ed5E57]

I think #1 is already in the app

Get Outlook for iOS<>

[photopoeth]

OK... and how would you activate this function to split the reference points for focus and exposure?

[photopoeth]

@BorisTheBladeSo far, I haven't seen any response to my “wish list” here. There may be two reasons for this:
(1) The message has gone down. 🤷🏼
(2) The list is so outlandish that there is no need to reply to it. 🫣

Which variant is it? To save time, a simple (1) or (2) will suffice. 😉

Wekche Variante ist es? Um die Zeit zu sparen, genügt ein einfaches (1) oder (2). 😉

[BorisTheBlade]

@BorisTheBladeSo far, I haven't seen any response to my “wish list” here. There may be two reasons for this:
(1) The message has gone down. 🤷🏼
(2) The list is so outlandish that there is no need to reply to it. 🫣

Which variant is it? To save time, a simple (1) or (2) will suffice. 😉

Wekche Variante ist es? Um die Zeit zu sparen, genügt ein einfaches (1) oder (2). 😉

By @photopoeth

I missed this message - the suggestions all make sense. The 'ASAP' part I cannot promise. 😉 

[photopoeth]

Great! Thanks for your feedback. 🙂

[clarkd10108068]

I captured 5 images and the app only saved one of them. I kept the app open while processing was taking place. iPhone 14. 

[Ed5E57]

Did it show the overheating warning. My 14 Pro does the same but often crashes the app as well

Get Outlook for iOS<>

[BorisTheBlade]

I captured 5 images and the app only saved one of them. I kept the app open while processing was taking place. iPhone 14. 

By @clarkd10108068

Hello - thank you for trying Indigo and for reporting your concerns. I am sorry you faced issues with photos not being saved. Out of curiosity, have you tried again after you originally reported this, and perhaps in the new version of the app? If I may ask, what did the UI look like while you were capturing these photos: did the in-flight photo counter (as a badge on top of the filmstrip icon in bottom left) keep incrementing or was it always showing a single number, or something else perhaps?

Thank you for helping us triage this issue.

[lucasw73817227]

First of all, the camera is fantastic. It already has changed how I use the iOS camera. I did notice a bug with iOS 26 though. Seemingly on non SR pictures, a black bar is attached to vertical images. Another camera app I use Not boring camera, just had a bug fix for this issue. Attached are sample photos. One at 1x with PI, one at 2x SR with PI, and one 1x with Apple camera. 

[lucasw73817227]

Since it is a black bar added, I made a shortcut to crop the picture and delete the original. It checks if it is portrait or landscape and crops accordingly. Otherwise the application is fantastic! Shortcut link 

[Exclusive By Yusef]

Hello! This app is great, and I appreciate you guys taking feedback while improving the app. 

I have a iPhone 16 Pro Max, and while testing the app, I noticed it makes my phone overheat. Quitting the app will let the phone cool down, but I hope you guys can fix this in a future update. 

However thanks again from the Big Apple!

[malcolmb59383665]

Being able to focus manually is important sometimes in order to get the best possible quality. However, it's not easy to focus to the maximum precision while looking at the small screen of a phone. I would like to suggest that a zoomed in view is displayed while adjusting focus manually

[Nora32609301rt7f]

This + focus peaking overlay would be amazing

[BorisTheBlade]

Hello - thank you for trying Project Indigo and providing feedback. You are able to turn on focus loupe by tapping on the little zoom icon left of the focus slider. If this is not a satisfactory solution, please feel free to provide suggestions for improvement and the team will take them into consideration.

[Matteo Valzolgher]

Hello,

I would like to report an issue that occurs when editing a picture taken with Project Indigo with the “Photos” app on IOS.

When done editing a picture (Even just a simple crop or a clean up) it will come out with a red/green or blue layer applied on it.

Examples of a picture before and after editing are attached.

[tom_5327]

I'm also getting the change of color after editing in photos. 

[BorisTheBlade]

Hello Matteo and Tom - thank you for reporting this issue. We are in touch with Apple on Apple Photos' support for Indigo-captured DNGs and hope we can resolve this problem soon.

[ansley_9597]

Hi I am using the app with a iphone 14 bought from South Korea. I dunno why but the shutter sound goes crazy as soon i open the app even though i didnt press the shutter to take a photo. Is it just me or is it normal?

[powerful_Elixir5E29]

Tried the new updated version and while the heating issue and speed is somewhat improved it still makes the phone drain battery very fast when taking and processing photos and is still nowhere near google camera hdr+ level of efficiency and speed. I hope the team manages to fix those issues in the near future.

[nhan_8084]

@BorisTheBlade I took a before and after of the 2x and 10x super res as I saw the update changelog said super res day and night have better details, but I am seeing the same!  Also it is 90F currently, phone was in pocket, I was standing under shade, no more than 10 minutes after taking before and installing update, the 1.0.2 version gave me overheat.  I also noticed the 10x outdoor got very very shaky after that overheat message, and the viewfinder screen dimmed greatly!  Seems like it turned off eis or ois even!  The indoor also looks very bad compare to apple stock 10x zoom after the update.

[nhan_8084]

154 and 000 is version 1.0.1

[nhan_8084]

The raw files processed in lightroom mobile killing sharpness and all noise reduction also makes no differences!  Before vs after.

[HughOfBardfield]

And once again, Adobe ignores Android users and prioritises Crapple. 

[chubby_puppy]

The way I see it: if you're a Google Pixel user then your phone already have a camera of similar quality as Indigo. Or you have another brand with a GCam port installed. 
I have an old Nokia 7 Plus with official LineageOS 22.2 and a variant of GCam with manually adjustable (and 'switch-off-able'!) noise reduction and sharpening and it beats Apple's camera on my iPhone 15 Pro Max IMHO.