When Adobe released the Project Indigo app earlier this year, it brought a new level of professional camera settings to the iPhone. Sure, the cameras in recent iPhone models capture impressive images, but they're still mostly designed for anybody to take quick snaps and get great results.
But in the two months since the iPhone 17 Pro has captured our attention -- and hundreds of photos, by itself and also compared against Android phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Pixel 10 Pro -- Indigo has made us blue with a lack of iPhone 17 support.
Now, on the cusp of Adobe's annual Adobe Max event, the app works with the iPhone 17 series -- but just the rear cameras for now. The front camera, a new design with a square sensor and Apple's Center Stage reframing technology, will be supported after iOS 26.1 is released, which fixes a compatibility bug.
Enlarge Image The instant shutter allowed me to capture this bird at just the right moment. Andrew Lanxon/CNET
The Project Indigo app offers granular control over camera settings like white balance and shutter speed while also packing AI-based features like resolution upscaling for 10x zoom, denoising and reflection removal tools.
The app is available now for iPhone, so like the excitable photographer I am, I took it for a quick spin around Edinburgh on an iPhone 16 Pro.
I love this first shot of a bird flying through Edinburgh's Royal Mile. I've taken advantage of two features here. Firstly, the manual white balance has allowed me to slightly warm the scene up, as I often find that the iPhone's default camera app tends to lean on the cool side. I love the tones captured here. Secondly, the app features a zero-lag shutter, which allowed me to quickly capture the moment the bird was perfectly in line with the church spire.
It's a difficult shot to nail, but having no delay between pressing the shutter button and the image taking makes all the difference. Adobe says it achieves this by "constantly capturing raw images while the viewfinder is running," meaning that the image has technically already been captured when you press the button. For those of you wanting to snag high-drama shots of football games or your dog jumping for a frisbee, a zero-lag shutter is a boon.
Enlarge Image Image taken at 10x optical zoom with denoise applied within the Adobe Indigo app. Andrew Lanxon/CNET
While the iPhone's base optical zoom maxes out at 5x, Adobe's Indigo app lets you digitally zoom in further with better quality. Using AI and combining multiple frames to upscale those images, they retain more detail than simply zooming in to 10x in the regular camera app. I used it here and I'm impressed at the overall clarity of the scene.
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