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: 

[djskinner50]

Would be nice to have some dng files in the Lightroom album for us to play with.

[jillpearson]

Looks really exciting but I only took one photo and now the PI app has a banner saying my phone is overheating. Indeed it is very hot and nonresponsive. I can't use the app (nor my phone for several minutes after trying again to open the app). 

14 Pro Max 1TB, with over 500GB available. iOS 18.5 (22F76)

[derosa42]

reported same problem

[photopoeth]

Same here with my 14 Pro (Regular not MAX). I suspect the Zero Shutter Lag being the troublemaker, as the overheating has not occurred once in night mode. In normal photo mode, I can take a maximum of one picture before the overheating message appears. Sometimes even before taking the first photo. 😞

[Harmonious_guide8570]

Request for Cooperation Regarding Continuous Shutter Sound Issue in Indigo App

Dear Project Indigo Development Team,

First of all, thank you for creating Indigo—it’s one of the most thoughtfully designed and impressive camera apps I’ve ever used. I genuinely appreciate the care and innovation your team has put into it.

However, as an iPhone user based in South Korea, I’d like to bring to your attention a persistent issue with shutter sounds when using Indigo on iOS in this region, and to propose closer cooperation between Adobe and Apple to help address it.

As you know, Indigo’s multi-frame fusion architecture involves capturing multiple RAW frames in rapid succession. Unfortunately, due to region-specific behavior in iOS for the Korean market, each of these RAW frame requests triggers a shutter sound—even when no actual photo is being taken. As a result, Indigo becomes nearly unusable in quiet environments across Korea.

Apple has stated that this is due to a legal requirement in Korea mandating shutter sounds. However, this is factually incorrect. South Korea has no law requiring such sounds. Instead, there exists only a non-binding, privately issued guideline by the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), which holds no legal authority. For your reference, I’ve attached the original TTA standard document as a PDF.

This policy has recently come under public scrutiny in major Korean media. Reports from organizations like the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, as well as outlets such as the Maeil Business Newspaper, highlight that over 85% of respondents believe shutter sounds should be user-selectable, and they clearly state there is no legal obligation to enforce such behavior.

I plan to formally reach out to Apple to request a reconsideration of this regional policy. I would also like to kindly ask Adobe to raise this issue with Apple, emphasizing that the current enforcement is based on a misinterpretation of local regulations. Since Adobe has already collaborated with Apple regarding related APIs, reaffirming that “there is no legal requirement for shutter sounds in Korea” could strengthen the case for change.

Thank you again for your excellent work on Indigo. I hope this message helps contribute to a better user experience.

• The relevant TTA guideline is attached as a PDF file for your reference.

• Maeil Business News Column Link

[BorisTheBlade]

Hello - thank you for your interest in Indigo, and for your detailed and thoughtful message. We are working with Apple on this issue for South Korea and Japan, and will release a version of the app which works without additional shutter sounds as soon as we are able to. 

[Harmonious_guide8570]

Thank you for the update and your continued efforts on this issue. I truly appreciate it.

I hope the eventual solution doesn’t rely on capturing the live camera feed via AVCaptureVideoDataOutput or similar workarounds that bypass the shutter sound but compromise image quality.

Indigo’s RAW-based multi-frame processing is what makes it stand out, and I’d love to see that preserved.

Thanks again for your dedication.

[BorisTheBlade]

We will try to maintain the high image quality output while working to resolve problems reported by our users, such as this one on shutter sound.

[mlondon88]

Thank you Team Indigo.

This is brilliant and I'm sure will only get better.

Two requests:

1) Please add aspect ratio options. I understand iPhone is 4:3 native, but would love to be able to compose/shoot in 3:2. (Even better if the extra pixels are saved for extra room in cropping)

2) This is probably a long shot, but if you can figure out a way to interact with Profoto's ProfotoControl app, it would be a big step towards studio quality images from the iPhone.

Again, bravo and looking forward to seeing this app become more capable and refined. Far from ready to ditch my pro-level gear, but it's incredible to be able to carry just the phone and not be as constrained by previous limitations. Thank you Adobe!!

[BorisTheBlade]

Hello - thank you for your message. We are glad you are enjoying Indigo, and hope to keep you interested with future updates and improvements.

On the ProfotoControl app, can you let me know what you are thinking there? Would you want to be able to control Indigo with the ProfotoControl app, or something else?

[gerard_711]

I was intrigued by the article on the DPReview website and thought I'd give it a go. A couple of casual shots from the door of my house showed that the results do indeed have more of an "SLR" look. I was also very impressed with the results of the digital zoom. This morning, I took two pictures of the beach near my home, one with the native iPhone app and one with Indigo. I was surprised at how much better the Indigo result was. As I have read in the comments on the DPR site, it is clear that newer iPhone models can cope better with the considerable amount of processing - my 14 Pro gets very warm and takes some time to produce a result. I am, however, sufficiently impressed to have decided that I will upgrade to a refurbished 16 Pro later this year. Tworesults from this morning's walk. The  sea was looking very blue today - the geology of my home area in East Yorkshire, England, means that the sea can be muddy sometimes. The Indigo result is more accurate and pleasing, showing the bright blue of the sea as it was.

[1Helen]

The images with the PI-app are promising! But I get a message on my iPhone 16 Pro quite quickly that the phone is overheating. I used an external macro lens. What can I do to prevent this? Thanks in advance for your response!

[BorisTheBlade]

Hello - thank you for reaching out and sharing your experience with Indigo. We would particularly like to hear about your experience with the external macro lens!

Regarding overheating, we will be addressing this with updated versions of the app which should help mitigate some of those issues, and we'd love to hear back from you to learn whether your experience with Indigo improves.

[mopperle]

Just installed the app on a iPhone 13Pro and for a moment it looked quite promising. But after taking three pictures I got the warning "Your phone is overheating". This is an absolute NoGo for me and so I uninstalled the app immediately.

[BorisTheBlade]

Thank you for reaching out to the team. We understand that Indigo is taking a lot of power, especially on older devices, and we are working hard on optimizing the code further and reducing the power consumption. It would make us very happy if you could try our upcoming releases and let us know whether the power situations has improved for you as well, perhaps sufficiently so to consider using the app more often.

[????????_4983]

Hopefully the team manages to make it as low power consumption and as fast as hdr+ which was much more efficient and ran fast even on budget android devices so with advances to software one would imagine it ti perform even better now on better hardware but it is the opposite at least for now. Not to mention the heat!

[nhan_8084]

@BorisTheBlade What's the actual input raw frame rate provided by iOS to the app? I've heard iOS isn't very performant on this side and doesn't hit the expected 30 fps mark that is otherwise common on Android.

Also in regard to the FOV mismatch between night mode and zsl, why couldn't the team allow raw stream to buffer let say up to 12 frames for night mode then once shutter is pressed, merge all of them and do the same as zsl but use 9-10 frames or so versus discarding some?

[BorisTheBlade]

ZSL frames have to be hard-capped on exposure time, otherwise the viewfinder would become unusable, and the frames would become too blurry due to the lack of OIS. That is why we recommend using the Night mode in dark situations, an why it is producing better quality iamges in those circumstances: we can use longer exposure times to get more signal and better combat noise.

[nhan_8084]

I believe ZSL is capable to do at 1/10s shutter speed stacking at about 9-10 frames.  For long expo at night mode, wouldn't you have more chance to blur via holding longer?  Plus it also seemed post process via night mode applies more denoising which makes the image softer and "clumpier".   You also risk merge artifacts as well right if object moves even a little.  I am fine with ZSL in night mode to sacrifice with a bit of fine grains, and then post process myself via lrm!

[nhan_8084]

@BorisTheBlade Could you ask the team and provide the answer to the first question regarding the fps raw?

[dash_0692]

Hi, something I would highly appreciate are actually a list of things.

First, I think a better zoom integration would be highly appreciated, such as the iPhone camera app, where you can slide the zoom from left to right for an easy, quick, intuitive, and controlled zoom experience. 

Second, a better integration with the Camera Control would be highly appreciated. Just a simple integration with the iPhone settings app to set the press of the Camera Control to open Project Indigo instead of the iPhone default camera app. 

Third, as many people have mentioned before, resolution control. A 48 megapixel DNG file would be great for my line of work, and while I can take one in the iPhone camera app, I would prefer it in this app instead. 

And lastly, videos. The look of the photos this app takes is incredible, and so i would imagine videos would be amazing as well. 

Honorable mention: Photo presets

Thank you for your time reading this and hopefully you can take this into consideration. 

[BorisTheBlade]

Hello - thank you for your message and for your thoughtfull suggestions. We will look into all of these. A couple of related comments:

• You can already put Indigo as the default camera app in all the typical places: Action button (if available), Camera button (if available), Lock Screen widget, Control Center, and Lock Screen camera.
• Indigo only has access to 12MP raw frames from the camera sensor. 48MP output would require using Apple's ProRaw, which I presume is not your goal? We will however look into options for enabling 48MP in the future.

[nhan_8084]

Adobe seems to have a greater partnership with apple than androids, so please ask apple to allow api access to the sensor 48mp bc I would not want to use proraw dng!  Full res unbinned from sensor single frame would be more feasible from PI or multi frame raw to denoise without post process applied!

[jeffreyn95587061]

Just found out and downloaded yesterday.  This already looks to be a big improfement over the native camera app.  Thanks.

I purchased the 15 pro a year or so ago in hopes it might replace my trusty Canon G1X Mk III as a second camera; my main camera is an R5.  So I did a quick comparison test with the Pi app.

I took three shots off my deck which looks south over San Diego.  All shots were taken at 24 mm equivalent and captured in CR2, DNG, and HEIF format.  I used Lightroom Classic on my Mac to import the files with minimal processing.  I had to use the highlight/shadow sliders on the G's CR2 file to equal the in-camera adjustments from the two iPhone files.  I used Topaz Photo AI to uprez the Pi's 12 MP to 5120x2880 to fit my Retina Display.  I also used Topaz to downrez the other two 24 MP files to 5120x2880. 

Comparing the images the Pi file was nearly identical in resolution, color gradation, and saturation to the G's image.  The Pi file is night and day better than the iPhone HEIF file which looked flat and way over sharpened.  This test has me wondering if the iPhone can replace my G for travel.  I need the phone to acquire location information on my other cameras anyway.  Its early days yet since this is one focal length.

One issue I did notice was the lens distortion of the Pi image was worse than the HEIF image using the defalult Lightroom choice for lens profile.  There is a house at the far edge of the images that is definitley not square with the two iPhone images and worse from the Pi app.  I could correct it a bit with distortion correction in Lightroom but I'm not used to doing this. 🙂  

Thank you for your efforts with this app and letting us participate in its development.  I'm personally looking forward to your adding focus stacking to its capabilities since I use the iphone a lot for macro work in close quarters.  Cheers!  Jeff

[jeffreyn95587061]

I'll add that if I use the Adaptive Color profile on the G1X then the results are even more comparable to the Pi image.  I need to reduce the Amount slider for both cameras however.