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: 

[JUNSHENG_ZENG6158]

I’m writing to report an issue with continuous shutter-click sounds when using Project Indigo in Japan.

In Photo mode, Indigo continuously buffers short-exposure frames even before I press the shutter, so iOS plays the mandatory camera-shutter sound for every buffered frame. Because Japanese carriers require an audible click for each still-image capture, this results in a rapid “click-click-click” sequence at roughly three to four clicks per second, long before any photo is taken. The sound is loud and confusing. 

What I expected was a single shutter sound, only at the moment the final photo is captured. Instead, the pre-capture pipeline makes the app practically unusable in many everyday situations here.

To improve the experience, please consider batching the shutter sound so it plays only once per composite capture, providing a toggle to disable or limit pre-capture when the device is in Japan, or switching the buffer to a silent video stream until the user actually presses the shutter. Even a brief notice in the settings or FAQ, explaining why the clicks occur and how to minimize them, would help.

[BorisTheBlade2]

I’m writing to report an issue with continuous shutter-click sounds when using Project Indigo in Japan.

In Photo mode, Indigo continuously buffers short-exposure frames even before I press the shutter, so iOS plays the mandatory camera-shutter sound for every buffered frame. Because Japanese carriers require an audible click for each still-image capture, this results in a rapid “click-click-click” sequence at roughly three to four clicks per second, long before any photo is taken. The sound is loud and confusing. 

What I expected was a single shutter sound, only at the moment the final photo is captured. Instead, the pre-capture pipeline makes the app practically unusable in many everyday situations here.

To improve the experience, please consider batching the shutter sound so it plays only once per composite capture, providing a toggle to disable or limit pre-capture when the device is in Japan, or switching the buffer to a silent video stream until the user actually presses the shutter. Even a brief notice in the settings or FAQ, explaining why the clicks occur and how to minimize them, would help.

By @JUNSHENG_ZENG6158

Hello,

Thank you for reporting this issue. Indigo camera runs a constant stream of raw frames during viewfinding and stores them temporarily in a buffer. When a shutter button is pressed, we combine several of those frames into one photo and we issue a shutter sound. However, in Japan and South Korea there is a requirement that every raw photo request to iOS must issue a shutter sound, even if that raw frame is not used for the capture. That is why our viewfinder sounds like it is constantly "capturing" photos. The only workaround we can offer for the time being is to turn off the sound on the device.

[Steve K Walker]

I'm in South Korea. The workaround offered is not a possibility. Because the shutter sound is a legal requirement, it cannot be turned off. The volume is also not adjustable. So everyone in Japan and South Korea will hear the loud shutter clicks. This makes the app unusable. I can't see how you are going to manage to get around this one.  Such a pity. I was so looking forward to a decent photo app. 

[BorisTheBlade2]

Hi Steve, thank you for your message, and for adding clarification to my previous post.

[Phantom Steve]

Hi Boris — are you with Adobe or the development team?
I'm curious as to how this could be fixed — the camera sound is something we have to live with here — and the continuous sound makes it unusable.
If the app "runs a constant stream of raw frames during viewfinding and stores them temporarily in a buffer" then I can't see how this will ever be usable in SK.
It's something hardwired into iOS — if I leave SK the camera sound can be turned off as soon as I am in another country. But the minute I return, the sound is back.
No apps are able to turn off or reduce the volume of the camera shutter.
Are you saying this is a permanent and unfixable problem for SK and Japan?

[BorisTheBlade]

Hi Steve,

Before iOS 18, we had this problem in other regions as well, but Apple introduced an API that allows us to block the shutter sound and issue it only once we have the photo processed. However, that API does not work in SK or Japan. We worked with Apple on that API, and will continue to investigate options on solving this in SK and Japan, but given that the control is not in our hands, we cannot give any clear guidelines for when, or even if, this can be fixed without sacrificing the resulting image quality and/or the app functionality.

[Steve K Walker]

Thanks Boris. Hopefully some way is found — I just don't see how — unfortunatley for me.
I'll load it again and test — but obviously only in places where I won't get strange looks.

Further to my previous comments, is the overheating issue not a byproduct of the "runs a constant stream of raw frames during viewfinding and stores them temporarily in a buffer" function?
That sounds like something you really don't want a sensor to be doing — I mean, all the cameras I know generate noise as soon as the sensor is active for more than a few seconds. And the primary reason is heat.
So I woudl expect the phone to generate heat and use considerable battery power.
Or am I just plain wrong?

[BorisTheBlade]

Steve - you are correct that with the sensor streaming raw frames all the time the temperature does rise somewhat. But that is just one component in the device thermal equation, and not the biggest one either. Indigo is an experimental app, but we are working hard on improving all aspects of it, with performance being the top priority.

[lipid_]

I'm using a Japanese phone outside of Japan. Apple uses geolocation to turn off the shutter sound when the device isn't in a country which requires it to be on. How come this cannot be geo-disabled? Is it a limitation on third party apps?

[BorisTheBlade]

I'm using a Japanese phone outside of Japan. Apple uses geolocation to turn off the shutter sound when the device isn't in a country which requires it to be on. How come this cannot be geo-disabled? Is it a limitation on third party apps?

By @lipid_

Thank you for trying Indigo and for your comments. Indigo is simply using iOS APIs to access all camera functions, so to make sure we adhere to all local rules and regulations we do not try to work around them depending on, for example, geo-location. We are working with Apple to find a comprehensive solution for the shutter sound problem irrespective of the user's location or device origin..

[gregbenz]

Indigo is amazing!

I just published a detailed review and tutorial on it at https://gregbenzphotography.com/photography-reviews/project-indigo-the-best-camera-app-for-smart-pho...

[Harald5C31]

As usual - Greg was right on the spot. Great betaApp, great review

[tom_5327]

Greg, thank you for a great tutorial. I've read it a couple of times and have it bookmarked for reference. So far I am really enjoying Indigo. No issues. 

[Ray Moss]

Thanks for taking imaging to another level!  Looking forward to seeing how further computational photography develops. 

I'm testing the app out on my iPhone 15 max pro. Stopped by the beach and took 8-10 test images. My iPhone started giving me an overheating notice after that and I could feel it getting very hot. 

I was shooting in 90 degree tropical weather, and tried the 'sr' features, probably the intense processing required caused it to overheat. 

[powerful_Elixir5E29]

i think it still needs some optimization because even when i was inside my phone got hot after 5 images and it showed me a warning and started crashing. Im using iphone 14.

[mikej4252593]

It's the same for me on an iPhone 16 Pro

[powerful_Elixir5E29]

How much time does it take for one photo to be processed on the 16 pro?

[BorisTheBlade2]

How much time does it take for one photo to be processed on the 16 pro?

By @powerful_Elixir5E29

Image processing time is highly variable, as it depends on the zoom level used, whether super-resolution is enabled or not, how many frames the camera or the user decided to capture, whether Photo or Night mode is used, etc.

[powerful_Elixir5E29]

Yes but the actual performance of the app right now is not good. I mean yes the output images are very good quality but the time is task for one image to be processed on my 14 varies from 5-15seconds and this is a lot and the device quickly starts overheating which is not an issue on Google Camera when using HDR+ which runs faster on much lower specced hardware than my 14 and doesnt overheat the device and one image typically takes 1-4 seconds to be processed. I really hope this is just an experimental version and it gets fixed in the future because i think right now the app is barely usable due to this issue.

[BorisTheBlade2]

Thank you for the feedback. As you are pointing out, the processing time will also vary based on device temperature, since the system starts throttling the speed of hardware components, which slows everything down. We will continue working on optimizing the Indigo's image processing pipeline to make it faster and less power hungry. Indigo is indeed an experimental app, and it is released on Adobe Labs, not Adobe. The goal is for the team to gather feedback from customers.

[????????_4983]

Will you be able to achieve the same processing time and power efficiency as HDR+ on Google camera because that is super power efficient like it takes 20 photos for my phone ti drain 1% versus indigo which takes 3 photos to drop 1%?

[Alison Mackey]

I really want to play with this app, but I get the overheating notice on my phone almost immediately when trying to use it. I'm on a 13 Pro.  

[bcashjmu]

Can't wait for the Android version! I am in for that beta group when it's available 😉👍

[nhan_8084]

 10x super res zoom on my 15 pro max has a lot of merge artifacts.  Also when facing against hdr, it has heavy underexposure and tint issue, and wb is too warm vs realistic scene as shown in pro mode vs auto.

 

 

[nhan_8084]

@BorisTheBlade2 Please respond or if I could

reach an engineer to discuss?