Discover the top-notch, complimentary iPhone camera application from Adobe that you've yet to experience – give it a shot!
Getting real with Adobe's Project Indigo
A year ago, Lux, creators of Kino and Halide apps, launched a unique camera tool—Process Zero. Now, Adobe has joined the iPhone camera game with Project Indigo. But is this pro-grade container worth a shot?
Indigo in a Nutshell
Indigo is packed with a few manual controls and a custom computational photography pipeline, developed by Adobe's team. While it only offers photo capture, it throws in a dedicated night mode for good measure. It even snaps extra frames before you hit the shutter, ensuring your photos stay sharp and artifact-free.
Adobe promises "mild tone mapping, boosted color saturation, and sharpening," with minimal smoothing and noise retention for an authentic feel. Its multi-frame super-resolution kicks in for 2x or 10x zooms, providing a clearer image, albeit with some compromises for zooming beyond 5x on the iPhone 16 Pro.
Quality Control
Who wins in image quality? While the iPhone captures sharper, more vibrant images, a closer look reveals distorted surface textures and a heavier hand when it comes to rendering highlights and shadows. In contrast, Indigo's clicks are softer, with a mellow approach to noise reduction, resulting in a more accurate depiction of the scene.
The real magic happens in the editing pipeline. Indigo captures the same frame in JPEG (HDR and SDR) and DNG formats. Exporting photos to Lightroom effortlessly imports DNG files, offering plenty of editing freedom.
Night Owl
low-light performance tests, the iPhone tended to struggle with color realism, especially under mixed lighting conditions. Indigo outperformed, delivering better color accuracy, especially at high zoom ranges where the frame fusion kicks in.
Fixing the iPhone
In several comparisons, the iPhone retained superior sharpness and texture, but Indigo stood out when the iPhone ran out of steam. Indigo's low-light samples, captures in a dark alley at 10x zoom, were a stark improvement over the native app, offering clearer, more contrasty images.
Indigo's macro capabilities impressed too, with improved sharpness and natural color representation compared to the iPhone.
Should You Hop In?
Project Indigo offers a notable advantage over the iPhone's default camera app for iPhone 15 Pro and newer devices. However, it has some quirks: image processing speed, high resource demands, data loss on app closure, and the need for Lightroom knowledge to fully unlock its potential.
Yet, for enthusiasts looking to capture more realistic, nature-inspired images, Project Indigo is a worthwhile experiment. Casual users might find the pre-installed iPhone camera app adequate, but experimenters could find a new favorite in Indigo.
In comparison to the iPhone's default camera application, Adobe's Project Indigo provides a more accurate depiction of scenes, particularly in low-light conditions and macro photography, due to its custom computational photography pipeline. However, users should be aware of Project Indigo's higher resource demands, slower image processing speed, and the need for Lightroom knowledge to fully utilize its potential.
