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: 

[buggleston]

I see how using OIS for night mode would explain differences in FOV, but why would the shift be consistently in the same direction and evident even when the phone is propped up and completely still?

[BorisTheBlade]

I do not know exact details about the OIS mechanism in iPhones, but typically the way OIS systems work nowadays is that there is a fixed "park" position when OIS is off (like in Indigo's Photo mode), and an "active" position when OIS is on (Indigo's Night mode). One way to illustrate this is to think of the OIS active position while the device is still as (0,0) coordinate, OIS active position while the device is shaking as (0,0) + a small (x,y) offset (to counter the shake), and the OIS off position as (X,0) where the lens gets parked.

[nhan_8084]

@BorisTheBlade U mean no OIS used in zsl mode of super resolution or zsl as a whole system of PI.  Also pixel super res are able to use OIS on gcam with movement needed slightly to compensate, but blurry frames are discarded per gcam log.  However, even if frames are kept it never off centered, just blurry if shutter speed gets too low like 1/7s 

[BorisTheBlade]

Project Indigo streams raw frames while the viewfinder is running, and when the user presses the shutter button, some of those frames are used to create the final photo with ZSL. These raw frames, and the resulting photo, do not use OIS. For Night mode, the viewfinder still streams raw frames (without OIS) while the capture does use OIS, which causes the FOV discrepancy. Pixel camera is a completely different HW and SW stack and cannot always be used to compare with Project Indigo at a component level.

[le_4644]

I'm so happy about the introduction of this camera app. I have been waiting for this since the early days of pixel phone camera app!

For now I will have to borrow an compatible iphone to try it out since I only have an 11 pro and 12 mini iphones. Will the team make this project works on older devices as well?

[BorisTheBlade]

Thank you for your message. To offer all of its features, Project Indigo requires a minimum of 6GB of RAM on the device. To ship Indigo on devices with less memory would probably require sacrificing some features, which is possible but is not our priority for the time being. As we develop additional features and further optimize the application speed we will keep reevaluating the opportunities to support older devices.

[tom_5327]

I was out this afternoon with my 16Pro and took 68 photos with Indigo with zero heating issues. 

[le_4644]

Just tried this app on an borrowed iPhone 16 pro. Everything seems to work like magic! Photos look significantly more natural and clean than the Proraw 48mp files even if it's just 12mp. Interface and features run quite smooth but probably needs some optimization to make the device less warm.

On the other hand, I felt there are features and stuff that I hope this app will gain in future updates:

• Precision controls to tune the way this app handles sharpening and noise reduction before taking pictures.
• Dedicate modes and UI optimization for long exposure and astrophotography features.
• Self timer or delay shutter mode to prevent camera shake when let the phone stay still.
• I felt that the workflow of moving between saved pictures in Apple’s photos app and edits in Lightroom is quite clunky so I hope this camera app will eventually replace the outdated sluggish camera in Lightroom app so the whole workflow can be more seamless from shooting to editing dng files in one single app.
• Finally, I hope this app will also run on older iphone devices that still support iOS 18.5 and iPad Pro devices. I believe it give older 12mp cameras a new life!

[jackssightseeing]

I agree the app is pretty great and they can make it even better with some minor quality of life improvements like the ones you listed but also things like rule of thirds grid overlays, level displays and more manual control over some of the options.

I'm currently using it on my iPhone 14 and the overheating can be a bit of a problem so I'm dubious on how compatible older phones will be with this app. 

[Norman359727959y38]

You might find these grid/level features if you swipe left on the histogram at the top of the display, which also reveals the Settings button. Similarly, Pro Controls are accessible using button in lower right corner. It's worth reading 'Camera Features' and FAQs under Settings.

[Norman359727959y38]

I think you will find that Lr Mobile has already been updated to enable you to use Indigo in Lr Mobile as a switchable Tech Preview option, with the normal caveats.

There is already a timer option available swiped from the histogram, but we have been advised that you need to be holding the camera for the Super-Resolution Multi-Frame computational features to work correctly. It seems counter-intuitive not to put it on a tripod.

[knstne]

Greetings!

I've been testing all the amazing features and computational force of nature that Indigo is and I ran across a wall, or question let's say.

Is there any toggle I may have missed or a possible feature update that could leverage the 48MP camera an iPhone  16 Pro Max?

I tested with all possible zoom options and setting changes but all photos come up with 12MP Fusion Camera, which in 1x photos especially the smaller resolution  when zooming in or on a larger display is pretty evident.

Thank you!

[BorisTheBlade]

Hello - thank you for your message. Indigo camera at present only supports images up to 12MP. We will explore options to provide higher resolution images in the future.

[hobena40394194]

Hi, I'm reporting a bug I’ve encountered with the Project Indigo camera app.

Because I’m in South Korea, my phone automatically plays a shutter sound every time the camera is triggered. I believe this might be related to the issue I’m experiencing.

As soon as I launch the app, the camera shutter sound starts playing repeatedly at 0.1-second intervals, non-stop. It happens immediately upon opening the app and continues indefinitely.

I’ve recorded a video to demonstrate the issue and have attached it here.

Is anyone else experiencing the same problem?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[BorisTheBlade]

Hello - thank you for your message and for reporting the issue. This was reported earlier on the thread, and unfortunately there is not much we can do for now: 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.

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 the user actually captures a photo. 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.

[hobena40394194]

Hi, I'm reporting a bug I’ve encountered with the Project Indigo camera app.

Because I’m in South Korea, my phone automatically plays a shutter sound every time the camera is triggered.

I believe this might be related to the issue I’m experiencing.

As soon as I launch the app, the camera shutter sound starts playing repeatedly at 0.1-second intervals, non-stop.

It happens immediately upon opening the app and continues indefinitely.

I’ve recorded a video to demonstrate the issue and have attached it here. Is anyone else experiencing the same problem?

[hobena40394194]

This post was accidentally uploaded twice, and this is the duplicate.

Could a moderator please delete this post? Thank you!

[whispy snippet]

I've been reading all about this new Indigo camera app this evening and can't wait to see it come to the Pixel series. I've been desperate to see the indisputable benefits of computational photography without the added baggage of the "HDR-y", over saturated and over sharpened look. Everything you're working on is exactly what I've been looking for - smart phone imagery that is cleaner and more detailed but natural and true to life. Super excited!

[nhan_8084]

@BorisTheBlade Also please make it a way so raw is viewable in the default photos app or the google photos viewer for easy sharing as I do not use my laptop much, and want everything to strictly focus on mobile.  Most app allows sharing dng via gphotos or accessible via clients like telegram, so PI should do this as well.  

[BorisTheBlade]

Hello - would you mind explaining your request a bit more so that I don't wrongly understand what you are asking. Is it for Indigo to allow DNG-only capture, or for the Indigo sharing option in the filmstrip to allow to share DNGs, or both of those, or something else? Thank you.

[nhan_8084]

@BorisTheBlade So the dng captures fine, however upon viewing the photo in gphotos or apple photos app, sharing it to telegram or anywhere will only share the embedded jpeg and not the actual .dng raw file.  Raw dng is only viewable if using lightroom mobile or lightroom app it seems.  My request is to have separate .jpeg and .dng so that way the .dng is able to be shared by gphotos and apple photos gallery app to third party clients like Telegram vs having to use pc to drag the .dng from phone to desktop then share.  I want to make sharing convenient via mobile, and to android devices!

[francois_2687]

I'm very happy to discover this new camera app on ios. But despite the really good job, an easy to use user interface and the good quality of the pictures, I was disappointed to discover that the geolocation data is not filled in and that the file names are random.
I'm sorry, but for me it's crippling (rédhibitoire in french).

I would still like to commend the excellent work done 👍

Regards

[BorisTheBlade]

Hello - thank you for trying Indigo and for your feedback.

• For the geolocation, can you confirm that you have granted the app permission to access the location data of the device? You can go to the camera settings and tap on any of the permissions, which will take you straight to the system settings. There you can check if Location access is granted.
• For the filename, are you referring to the long file name starting with IDG? If so, that file name is not random, but is based on date and timestamp so it is easy to sort and find by capture time. If it is something else, do let me know what to look for.

[francois_2687]

How yes my bad, access to the phone location was off... Wonderfull I will use P.Indigo to replace Apple Camera.
FOr the name, I don't understand because into photo name are like IDG+Date+Timestamp+number but when I open picture repertory in windows names are completely random like RQEY5741.JPG or PXXQ2286.jpg or again OBZL9606.jpg. I don't know why...

Thanks for your help

[BorisTheBlade]

Thank you for the update and the clarification. Can you tell me how are you copying the files over to your computer? And which machine are you using, a Mac, Windows, Linux/Unix?