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: 

[Norman359727959y38]

Thanks for the new app and the opportunity to participate in its evolution. Should be a very interesting project. 

Will you be able to introduce 48MP Bayer RAW DNG files in Indigo image processing, i.e. without ProRAW and its Deep Fusion and Smart HDR? The recent Adobe advice on how to reduce the impact of ProRAW with adjustment of the Amount slider on the Apple ProRAW Profile in Lr was most welcome and has helped a lot to retain the greater resolution.

[BorisTheBlade2]

Thanks for the new app and the opportunity to participate in its evolution. Should be a very interesting project. 

Will you be able to introduce 48MP Bayer RAW DNG files in Indigo image processing, i.e. without ProRAW and its Deep Fusion and Smart HDR? The recent Adobe advice on how to reduce the impact of ProRAW with adjustment of the Amount slider on the Apple ProRAW Profile in Lr was most welcome and has helped a lot to retain the greater resolution.

By @Norman359727959y38

Hi Norman - thank you for reaching out, and for your suggestion. Supporting higher resolution bayer raw DNG capture is on our roadmap. To clarify, you are interested in computational photography raw DNG, not a single frame raw DNG, correct?

[Norman359727959y38]

Thanks for coming back to me.

I am probably part of a small, specialist iPhone user community that has fully adopted this camera and largely jettisoned my DSLR/Mirrorless (except when I need >300mm lenses), so exploiting the iPhone's full potential is always my goal.

I've spent a bit more time exploring the new Indigo features and can see how you are bringing together options like long exposure and focus bracketing where currently I use individual apps, like Reeflex (all 4), Even Longer and CameraPixels.

I think advanced users should be exploiting the 48MP capability of the various iPhone sensors in Bayer RAW DNG format and not be forced to use any level of ProRAW processing: ProRAW should be a switchable option.

The ideal for Project Indigo should be a single frame 48MP Bayer RAW DNG.  However, I appreciate that the emphasis of Project Indigo is computational photography, so a computational photography 48MP Bayer RAW DNG format image using the full capabilities of the 1x and 0.5x sensors might have to be a compromise if Apple prevents even Adobe from bypassing ProRAW for 48MP Bayer RAW images.

Thanks for considering this option.

[BorisTheBlade2]

Hi Norman,

iOS does not allow 3rd party camera apps to access the 48MP raw sensor data in any format: we can get a 12MP bayer raw, or we can request a 48MP ProRaw. Furthermore, 48MP sensors on iPhone devices is not bayer raw, but rather a QuadBayer, which may not be what you are looking for. Indigo can in principle use 12MP bayer raw frames and our multi-frame super-resolution technology to reconstruct a 48MP bayer raw frame, but that would be a computational photography frame, not a single frame as you are requesting.

[Norman359727959y38]

Thanks for coming back to me and clarifying that 48MP is a QuadBayer design: I knew that it was a collection of 4 elements but hadn't heard it called that before. Perhaps Apple might give some latitude in future releases to enable TP developers to access the 48MP RAW sensor data.

In the meantime, having seen how well your multi-frame super-resolution technology handles the 10x scenario on my 15PM, I think it would be fascinating to see what you can achieve with a reconstructed 48MP Bayer RAW computational photography frame (not a single frame).

[Huzaifa_Farooq3195]

for Android?

[BorisTheBlade]

The app is in its early stages of development, with the main goal for us to get feedback from the community. We will continue to explore opportunities to expand access to more platforms in the future.

[arun_6823]

Please do dont do this to android:)

They are every bit good or way ahead that IoS is. Ill be waiting

[francoisd49040993]

Totally sucks that this was not released on androids.  What is the time frame? 

[mario_4074]

The app is amazing. Works like magic the photos look so much better than out of the stock camera app, but I would really like to save 48 megapixel photos. I really hope this is coming. 

[r_7991]

I live in Japan with a US iCloud account so I was able to download the app on my iPhone 16pro. However when opening the app the shutter sound clicks non stop causing the phone to overheat. I mad a screen capture but there is no sound or crash log to provide. Has anyone else had this issues? At this stage I cannot take picture with the app. I wonder if it is mandatory for smartphones in Japan to always have the shutter sound and cannot be disabled.Any advice would help 

[Eli Johanson]

Yes, this is a specific feature of iPhones released for the Japanese and Korean markets. I have the same one. However, when in another country, the shutter sound turns off by switching the phone to silent mode. It’s also inconvenient, but you just have to live with it.

Earlier in this thread, people mentioned they resolve this issue with Apple

[r_7991]

I couldn't find the reference for South Korean or Japanese customers resolving this with Apple. I also use the Microsoft pix app. The only time the shutter sound is audible is in portrait mode. In the standard photo mode there is no shutter sound even on my iPhone 16pro in Japan purchased in Japan. I hope you find a work around.

[Norman359727959y38]

I think you will find that the Adobe team is still working with the Apple team to find a resolution for the Japan/South Korea noise issue, as clarified in a response on 18th Jun on page 2 by @BorisTheBlade. I don't think it's within the gift of the users.

[powerful_Elixir5E29]

You don't know how much time I have been waiting for this camera app to become reality. I still remember Marc talking about his vision for this app back in 2020. Now that I have tried it on my iPhone 14 all I can say about it is that the image quality is amazing! Good job! The issue I have encountered with the app is mostly related to performance though. Because I know android devices with much lower specs and slower processing and less power could run gcam faster to take photos in daytime or nighttime I think this app could better be optimized because currently it uses a lot of power and I mean it makes my iphone 14 hot to the touch in seconds and one image takes approx 10-15sec to be processed which on a budget android phone with gcam takes no more than 5 seconds and doesn't make the phone crash and burning hot but I guess that's to be expected given that it is the first version and it just came out. I really hope you optimized the performance aspect of it further because this is what currently stops me from using it for more than one pic a day on my iphone 14.

[ameliad90885250]

Any idea when this might be available for Android?

[BorisTheBlade2]

Hello - thank you for reaching out to us and your insterest in Project Indigo. The app is in its early stages of development, with the main goal for us to get feedback from the community. We will continue to explore opportunities to expand access to more platforms in the future.

[powerful_Elixir5E29]

Will adobe improve the performance of the app? I mean HDR+ ran for just 1sec on pixel 3 per photo.

[Wurstkrapfen]

Android does not allow full hardware access to it's cameras, manufacures keep this closed, so never...

But they could just finally add the AI Denoise function to Lightroom Mobile to edit the RAWs taken with the phone native apps.

[WilliamBurdinePhotography]

Actutally this is FALSE information, Android has a FULL SDK kit and has a far more open environment to developement and production than Apple...  What I believe is going on here is that Apple is a more popular phone than Android in America, therefore this app has a very good chance of making money on it first.  

[Tony_Tam]

I notice that Indigo is still not available in non-US App Store, like in Asia Hong Kong region. I wonder if Adobe can release it as well for ours. Thanks!

[Zhe3071965392i1]

It's not available in Japan, either. We really hope to give it a try.

[BorisTheBlade]

I notice that Indigo is still not available in non-US App Store, like in Asia Hong Kong region. I wonder if Adobe can release it as well for ours. Thanks!

By @Tony_Tam

Hello Tony - I am glad to report that Project Indigo is now available in Hong Kong as well. Hope you give it a try and report back what you think.

[kate_9325]

Hopefully it becomes available in Japan soon too!