Adobe just slipped a new iPhone camera app called Project Indigo into the App Store, and it’s completely free. The app has been released as a tech preview and comes from Adobe Research’s Nextcam team and is explicitly billed as an experiment; every download doubles as real-world feedback for the engineers.
Most phone cameras brighten shadows, crank up saturation, and smear away detail, leaving that tell-tale smartphone look. Indigo attacks the problem by under-exposing on purpose, then snapping and merging up to 32 frames each time you press the shutter. The stack slashes noise, protects highlights, and keeps textures intact, even in Night shots, so brick walls still look like brick, not plastic.
Indigo Brings Smarter Multi-Frame Tricks
Photographers who enjoy tinkering get full manual control over shutter speed, ISO, focus, and white balance, plus the option to decide how many frames sit in each burst. You can save a share-ready JPEG and a DNG raw file at the same time, and both formats carry built-in standard- and high-dynamic-range looks. That hybrid SDR/HDR JPEG means friends with bright HDR screens see the punchy version, while older displays fall back gracefully. A single tap inside Indigo even kicks the photo straight into Lightroom Mobile for deeper edits.
Indigo keeps its interface simple with just two shooting modes. Photo mode offers genuine zero-shutter-lag bursts, so you still capture the exact moment a toddler cracks a smile. Night mode stretches exposures and, if it senses your phone is on a tripod, can shoot a full second for each of 32 frames, delivering far cleaner low-light images than the stock camera.
Zoom addicts get a quality boost too. Pinch past 2× on the main lens, or 10× on an iPhone 16 Pro Max telephoto, and Indigo fires a quick burst, using your natural hand-shake to capture slightly different angles. It then fuses those frames for genuine detail instead of AI guesswork, giving you a usable close-up without lugging extra glass.
For everyday shooters, the headline is simple: Indigo aims to deliver DSLR-style photos without extra gear or subscription fees. The app may evolve quickly, and some features might vanish as Adobe tweaks its formulas, but if you’re tired of neon skies and plastic-smooth faces, Project Indigo is well worth a test drive this weekend. Adobe says it’s listening, so your best sample shot might help shape the next big leap in phone photography.