Greg Benz Photography

Project Indigo – the best camera app for smart phones

SUMMER SALE: a quick reminder to use discount code 25SUMMER through June 17 for 25% off all courses/bundles, Lumenzia, and Web Sharp Pro.

Smart phone cameras are incredible tools. They’re easy to use, lightweight, you always have it with you, and the image quality is very good. At the same time, a dedicated mirrorless or DSLR camera typically offers simpler manual control and higher image quality. Adobe has a new camera app called “Project Indigo” which is absolutely incredible. It offers breakthrough advances in image quality for smart phones, simple manual controls, and it’s free! I am stunned at how great this app is for serious photography, and it’s just the first release.

What are the benefits of Indigo?

Indigo has many very unique and interesting capabilities, including:

• Optimizations for HDR capture designed to help provide a more natural look.
• Super resolution (SR) offers a dramatic improvement in image detail for digital zoom levels (2x and 10x on my iPhone which only has optical lenses for 0.5x, 1x, and 5x).
  • This clever technology automatically combines multiple frames to take advantage of the natural pixel shifting that occurs from hand held shooting.
  • The results are vastly better than traditional upscaling normally use for digital zoom.
• Zero Shutter Lag: the app is constantly capturing image data and records the image as soon as click the shutter in photo mode.
• Electronic image stabilization (EIS) offers a more stable preview in the viewfinder (with the minor tradeoff that field of view is reduced by 10% for a 5x zoom).
• Multi-short merging enables:
  • long exposures (up to 32s)
  • significantly reduced noise
• Direct integration of technology previews, currently including:
  • AI Denoise
  • Remove reflections

Indigo offers simple and powerful manual controls for:

• shutter: from 1/64,000 to 1s in day mode (and up to 32s in night mode with the multi-shot capabilities)
• ISO: This varies by camera and even lens, but I see values ranging from ISO 20 to 12,500
• exposure compensation: available whenever you have not set full manual shutter and ISO, effectively giving you shutter priority mode and an easy way to lock ISO while still using the camera’s meter.
• focus: auto-focus, tap to focus on a specific point, or set a manual focus distance.
• white balance: temperature, tint, or presets for cloudy / sunny /, fluorescent / tungsten lighting

There are several visual aids you may enable to help you make critical decisions, including:

• Zebra stripes to assess blown highlights, which allows you to quickly “expose to the right” (shoot as bright as possible to minimize noise while avoiding clipped highlights).
• composition overlays for the golden ratio, rule of thirds, or center lines (which are helpful for shooting symmetrical compositions).
• A zoomed in window to help you assess sharpness for manual focus
• A level to ensure straight horizons and avoid key stoning
• A shake indicator to help assess potential problems when shooting without a tripod

There is a self-timer mode (for 3, 5, or 10 second exposures). And of course RAW (DNG) capture is supported to enable the best results.

Indigo is now available for any iPhone 12 Pro or regular 14 and later (Adobe recommends 15 Pro or above for best results). Adobe has said that they will be releasing an Android app in the future.

How is the image quality?

I highly recommend this camera app. These are the best images I’ve ever seen from my iPhone. I’m seeing numerous benefits:

• The manual controls are easy to set and allow you to get the best possible exposure
• Noise is significantly better
• Resolution for digital zooms is significantly better
• The manual controls make it easy to are powerful and easy to use, noise levels are great
• long exposures look great.

Will it offer the same quality as your mirrorless camera? Of course not, but that’s not the point. This is an incredible step forward in image quality from the one camera you always have with you.

Below is a comparison of a 10x zoom from Indigo vs the native camera app. Note the resolution and field of view are not necessarily the same as the native iOS app. When I use 10x, Indigo captures 11% wider but about 1/2 the linear resolution. While lower resolution sounds like a negative, it’s not at all. This is a classic example where better pixels are much more important than resolution. There is much more detail in the 2016 x 1512 image from Indigo than the 4032 x 3024.

Given the higher resolution of the native iOS capture, it was scaled down by 55% to align with the Indigo capture (which is shown with 100%, i.e. actual pixels). You would expect the original higher resolution would yield a result as good or better, but the image from Indigo is clearly better.

Note that both are RAW captures which were opened as SDR in Lightroom. The only edits were small changes to exposure (to match approximately as the native app offers no direct control over shutter/ISO and inherently does not optimize exposure as you can manually). 

Note all the areas where Indigo shows an improved result:

• the building at bottom right has far more detail.
• individual bricks are visible in the middle building
• sky noise is virtually eliminated
• faint lights on the distant yellow building are much more visible

 

I consider the Indigo result good enough to print at 10 x 12″, which is outstanding for a 10x digital zoom after sunset from a mobile phone. I could probably even get a pretty decent 20 x 24″ canvas print.

One might see this and get the impression that the native app is not good. I think that would be the wrong conclusion. These apps are built for very different purposes. I was able to achieve this result by using a tripod and manual exposure settings in Indigo, features which the native app is not optimized for (given most people would not do either) – and supporting these features would compete with goals for the native app to be as easy to use as possible for people who are not serious photographers.

That said, Indigo creates stunning images in auto mode when handheld, and has some tremendous advantages in image quality even if you use it casually. Indigo  is a great example of computational photography done extremely well.

How to setup and use Indigo:

The user interface is organized into  a few key areas:

• The top of the app:
  • file type: you may choose JPG only, or JPG + DNG (there is no option for DNG only)
  • histogram: in auto mode, you may tap to choose between a larger histogram or to show the shutter / ISO
  • swipe the histogram left to see important options including:
    • self timer
    • composition overlays
    • level
    • zebra stripes (highlight warning)
    • gear icon for advanced settings: use this if you need to disable super resolution (SR) or electronic image stabilization (EIS)
    • Note: there is a dot and dash under the histogram area to indicate which page you’re viewing (ie these “breadcrumbs” suggests the potential more options may be visible in the future by swiping more than once).
  • photo mode vs night mode
    • (this is redundant with the bottom controls in auto mode, but the only way to switch when in manual mode)
    • Note that you cannot change night mode when manual setting sliders are open at the bottom (just close focus, exposure, etc and then you can change this). I’ve also found it’s hard to click when you’re viewing top settings, so swipe to show the histogram if needed (this seems like a possible bug).
• Focal lengths:
  • These vary based on the focal lengths in your phone. Options labeled with “SR” are digital zooms using super resolution.
  • The circular arrow icon at the right lets you switch between the back and front cameras.
  • If you get very close, you may see an option offering macro mode (which may use super resolution on the 0.5x lens to achieve high quality 1.0x zoom).
• Photo / Night mode controls some key behaviors
  • You can change this any time via top-right icon (or when in auto mode via text buttons at bottom of the preview).
  • Photo mode is optimized for brighter conditions and offers:
    • Zero shutter lag (night mode will have a bit of lag)
    • Ready faster for the next shot (night is not as immediately ready to take another shot)
    • May produce better “super resolution” (SR) results as the camera is not using image stabilization.
  • Night mode is optimized for darker conditions and offers:
    • Longer shutter times (up to 32s vs a maximum 1/8s in photo mode)
    • Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)
    • Note that I need to play more with things like light trails in night mode. Capturing a long exposure by combining frames does not guarantee there will be gaps for fast moving subjects (such as light trails from cars)
• When in manual mode (which is enabled by clicking the settings toggle at the bottom right), you’ll be able to control:
  • focus:
    • tap on the image to autofocus on a specific area
    • drag the slider to adjust manually. This works best if you click the magnifying glass icon to see a zoomed in preview for critical sharpness.
  • exposure let’s you control shutter and ISO.
  • exposure compensation (disabled if you’ve manually set both shutter and ISO)
  • white balance
    • you may select presets for cloudy, sun, fluorescent, or tungsten lighting.
    • you may slider to set temp and tint.
    • Tap on the image to automatically set white balance on a target area.
    • click “auto” if you no longer need manual control
    • The grey card wheel (ring with different shades of gray) shows a grey reference over the image to help set temp and tint manually. It is just a visual aid and does not change anything on its own.
  • When in night mode, you’ll see a 5th icon for control over multi-shot features:
    • set the “frames to merge” from 1-32 to help create long exposures and reduce noise
    • “merge method” may be set to “align and merge” (for sharp handheld shots) or “long exposure” (for best results on a tripod)
  • click the active section (such as focus) again to hide the options when you wish to see more of the composition.
• When playing back images (by clicking the thumbnail at bottom left):
  • The top will show whether the image is “HDR” and the file type.
  • The top-right 4 dots icon will open the iOS Photos app (which is ideal if you wish to delete multiple images at once by clicking and dragging to multi-select, which you can’t do in Indigo – all images captured with this app are in the native photos roll, unlike the LR app).
  • The bottom row contains icons for:
    • sharing (this will use the JPG not RAW)
    • info (just swipe up on the image instead to get this more quickly)
    • the beaker icon for technology previews like AI Denoise and Remove Reflections (keep an eye on this area for cutting edge features, even Lightroom mobile does not have remove reflections yet)
    •  the “LR” icon will open the image in Lightroom.
    • the trashcan will delete the current image (if also open in LR, it will keep showing there for the moment – even though it really is gone)
  • shortcuts:
    • swipe down on the image to exit back to the camera (instead of clicking “<” at top left)
    • swipe up on the image to see info (instead of clicking “i” at the bottom)

I recommend the following setup:

• Turn on zebra stripes (by swiping the histogram as shown in the clip to the right).
  • This is the simplest way to easily get an ideal manual exposure, and is more informative than the histogram.
  • For manual exposure, set the best ISO and then adjust shutter speed while watching the zebra stripes.
• Use the golden ratio overlay.
• Enable the level.
• Switch the histogram view to show shutter speed when in auto mode (this helps warn you of potential motion/shake problems and the histogram isn’t necessary when you aren’t controlling exposure).
• How to launch Indigo quickly (three options):
  • You can add an icon on the lock screen (the native camera is defaulted to the bottom right icon, but you can change it).
    • Do a long hold on the lock screen, choose “customize”, click the lock screen shown at left, click the “-” if you need to remove an existing icon widget, click the “+” and search for “Indigo”. 
  • You can assign the “action button” (the one on the top left that mutes the phone by default)
    • Go to Settings / Action Button, slide to “controls”, click the blue button and search for “Indigo”.
  • If you have a newer iPhone with a “Camera Control” button:
    • You can set Indigo to be launched just by clicking that button (you cannot reassign the lock screen camera icon, it always launches the iOS camera app).
    • Go to iOS Settings / Camera / Camera Control and set the “launch camera” to Indigo.
    • You can then click that button to launch Indigo (as long as you are not in the iOS camera app, which will take priority).
    • If you leave the “require screen on”, then you can click the button once to wake the phone and then a second time to launch the app. There will be slightly awkward delay as the phone takes a second to use FaceID to unlock the phone to use the app (but the total time to launch is just as fast as waking the phone to click the icon for the native iOS app).
    • Note that you can also use this button to trigger the shutter when the app is open. That’s handy in the day if you are not looking at the screen, but it’s probably better to use the digital button on screen to capture any long exposures (as you’ll be less likely to shake the camera).
• Shooing DNG (RAW).
  • When processing in LR / ACR, you’ll see the “Indigo Embedded Profile”.
  • See the tips below for transferring the RAW to your computer, as it isn’t obvious.

Other workflow tips and things to know:

• The Zebras are slow to update and may be misaligned with image content when you are moving the camera.
  • You might wish to disable them if shooting moving action
  • Be sure to hold the camera steady when using them to gauge exposure.
  • This is probably an inherent limitation (time to preview slow shutter speeds, computational limits to preserve battery life, etc). It’s just a little odd the first time you see it, and is a non-issue when used with this understanding.
• To achieve long exposures in manual mode:
  • enable night mode
  • set the shutter to 1s
  • go to the “frames to merge” icon (just right of white balance) and select a number of frames (in auto, it seems to use a maximum of 5s)
  • Use “align and merge” if handheld (this mode can correct for some movement) or “long exposure” if on a tripod.
  • The night mode icon will show the total exposure time (shutter x number of frames), rounded to the nearest second.
  • Either be careful not to shake the camera when clicking the shutter or turn on the 3s delay timer.
  • When you click “i” in playback, you will see the shutter time for a single frame if multi-shot was used. So a very long exposure probably just shows 1s (as you might be combing 32 exposures which were 1s each).
• During playback, do a long hold on an image to see the SDR version (the HDR is shown by default).
  • Note that in bright ambient light, there may be no HDR headroom. This does not affect the recorded image, it just means you may not see the HDR benefit under some conditions. You can confirm the actual headroom in the phone by looking at the histogram in Lightroom for an image with HDR mode enabled.
  • And Adobe cautions that headroom may be limited if the phone gets hot (which it certainly can if you are using the app heavily).
• It’s important to remember that each lens on a smart phone is a different camera with its own sensor. They are all different!
  • For example, on my iPhone 16 Pro the minimum ISO varies between 20 and 64 depending on focal length.
  • You may also see zebra strips get better or worse when you change lenses due to different dynamic range (the iPhone 16 Pro 5x camera isn’t as good as the primary sensor for example).
  • So remember to think about your exposure / settings when you change focal length.
• Try not to exit the before your image has saved, as you can lose it under some (rare) conditions. When you see your last image shown as a thumbnail without any number at bottom left, it’s done processing.
• Note: I have occasionally seen the viewfinder go black (some kind of bug in this app or iOS). Opening the iOS camera and switching back seems to resolve the issue (so does restarting the phone if app switching doesn’t fix it).

Tips for shooting manually:

While there are certainly advantages to using a tripod for long exposures, you don’t need it with Indigo. The shake detection in the phone will limit exposures to 6s hand held (while the maximum exposure goes up to 32s when the app detects the phone is perfectly stable). In manual mode, you’ll see a stability indicator at the top left of the app. That indicator is not shown in the automatic modes, but you may notice that the automatic shutter speed gets much longer if the phone has been perfectly still for a couple seconds.

The handheld experience is just like using the native iPhone app. You’ll see a crosshairs target to help you keep the phone relatively stable for long exposures and the final result is similarly very good.

If you want to capture much longer exposures (or get the slightly wider composition the “long exposure” merge method offers), you should definitely consider a tripod. But if you don’t own one or haven’t brought it with you, consider stabilizing the phone against a railing, wall, etc to get the most stable conditions possible.

Shooting with a tripod

You do not need a tripod, but you can get some very unique long exposure shots if you use one. I highly recommend considering some simple options to help take advantage of it. There are a few tools that I think work very well for stabilizing a phone.

The Neewer phone SP-02 tripod mount is an absolute no-brainer for $20. It’s offers numerous benefits:

• Can be used without a tripod on a wide variety of surfaces (the ground, hand-braced against a railing, etc).
• Is small enough to fit in your pocket
• Works on any tripod as its base supports attaching to just about anything (an Arca Swiss mount, 1/4″, or 3/8″ mounting threads).
• Holds the phone firmly with a spring loaded arm that makes it easy to connect or remove the phone
• Can rotate between portrait and landscape orientation (with notches so that you will remain perfectly level after swiveling).
• Two cold shoes mounts in case you’d like to attach a microphone, lights, etc.

You can use this mount with your regular tripod, or you might consider a table top tripod to keep things very simple.

The Neewer TP29 table top tripod offers:

• Ballhead to easily optimize composition
• Three heights for the legs to set the base between 3-7″
• Light weight ( 9 ounces) and compact (just over 7.6″ long x  1.8″ wide folded)

I’m a big fan of the Really Right Stuff Ascend-14-PF tripod, which offers:

• The height can be be adjusted via legs and center column to go as low as 3.7″ or as high as 58″.
• If you invert the center column (which is very easy to do), you can actually put your camera all the way down to the ground.
• folds down to 17.1″ to easily fit in your carry-on luggage.
• Relatively lightweight at 3 lb and suitable for loads up to 30lb (making it great for everything other than potentially very long lens shots).
• There is a version of this with an integrated ball head, which is ideal if you want the most compact and lightweight setup (I prefer the flexibility of a separate ball head so I can swap out for a leveling base for panos).
• There is also a version with longer legs, but I prefer the more compact model.

This tripod is certainly not cheap, but very well made. You wouldn’t get it just for shooting with a phone, but I think it works well for traveling light and shooting with a mix of camera and phone (offers obvious height advantages over a table top tripod).  I like using this tripod with the Really Right Stuff BH-25 ball head (strong but compact).

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How to get the DNG (RAW) to your computer:

Likely due to limitations of 3rd party camera apps under iOS, there are a few quirks. When capturing DNG, a JPG is also captured and you may find that you only see the JPG when sending the image to your computer (such as via AirDrop).

Here are options for sending the RAW to another device:

• Open the image in LR on the phone and make any edit.
  • If you’ve enabled cloud syncing with Lightroom, it will automatically sync there (this works with Lightroom Classic too, not just the cloud version).
• Connect the phone via USB and import normally.
  • You will see both JPG and DNG and the file names are not the same, so this is a bit messy.
  • You should probably only import the DNG to keep things simple. Changing the sort order to “file type” should make this a bit easier.
• Share via AirDrop via the iOS Photos app with a special option
  • When you share, do not immediately click the AirDrop icon as the default is to transfer the JPG.
  • Click the “Options>” button near the top of the sharing interface and toggle on the option for “all photos data“. This will send over a folder with both the DNG and JPG. You must do this every time, the setting is not sticky.
  • This option is not available in Indigo.

As you’re probably already thinking, the file transfer experience could be improved. I imagine this is tricky within the options allowed in iOS, but hopefully we’ll see some simplifications in the future (at least an option for the LRC import dialog to not show JPG from Indigo when there is a corresponding DNG).

When you capture RAW, the profile will show in LR / ACR as “Indigo” or “Indigo Embedded Profile“. This is optimized for the mobile capture, but also includes a slider. Move the profile slider left for higher contrast (deeper shadows and brighter HDR highlights) or to the right to compress tonal range. I find that the best range is around the default or perhaps down as far as halfway to the left (for more contrast and pop). Pushing right tends to make shadows too light.

What could be better?

This is a truly stunning app, especially for an initial release.

Of course, there’s always room for improvement and I think the following would be valuable updates to consider in the future:

• Leave manual settings as they were. Currently, when you switch out of the app and back in, it goes back to automatic settings. So I keep having to change to manual, set the shutter, turn on 3s delay, etc.
• Capture notes of all special settings in XMP. Just human readable notes to record self-timer, merge mode, and all other key manual controls would be very helpful. These kind of notes help make it easy to review images to learn and find the best settings for future photo shoots.
• Simpler file management to get DNGs from the phone to a computer.
• Allow longer shutter speeds in brighter light (ie use the extra exposures to average values rather than build the exposure), kind of like a digital ND filter.
• Auto bracketing. Let me pick 3 or 5 frames and automatically do a burst of shutter speed brackets with a single click.
• Cleaner traffic trails for long exposures. The headlights look great via “align and merge” but are short (maximum 1s). They show nice long streaks under “long exposure”, but a very strange dim purple result.
• Shorter self-timer delay or a way to star the shutter as soon as the camera shake has ended, in order to get sharp photos on a tripod with the least delay.
• Pano mode – I would love to have this level of quality in my panos.
• Portrait mode – while not as important, I’d still prefer to consistently use one app for all photos. And this app would be ideal for portraits in tricky light.

 

What would you like to see next? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

I’d like to extend a huge congratulations and thanks to Boris Ajdin, Marc Levoy, Florian Kainz, and the rest of the team at Adobe responsible for this incredible app! Learn more from Adobe’s announcement and support pages.

Apple Safari now supports HDR photography!

SUMMER SALE: a quick reminder to use discount code 25SUMMER through June 17 for 25% off all courses/bundles, Lumenzia, and Web Sharp Pro.

Apple just wrapped up their 2025 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), and it was a very big year for photography and HDR display. Apple has been quietly adding substantial support for HDR hardware and software for years. The 2024 updates added HDR photography support for gain maps, the Photos app, Keynote, better support for 3rd-party HDR monitors and more. This year continues that trend with some very significant HDR updates.

Here’s a quick preview of what’s coming in the fall updates for photographers (everything will now be v26 – MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, etc).

Safari is adding support for HDR photography

Safari now supports HDR photos! This means more stunning and lifelike photos for the majority of iPhones, iPads, and Apple computers.

At 17% of global web traffic, Safari support closes most of the existing gap in HDR browser support. Combined with the other browser which already support HDR photos (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi), this accounts for over 90% of all web traffic (per statcounter.com).

The impact for existing HDR hardware is even more significant. Apple laptops and monitors have offered HDR hardware since 2018 and having support in the default browser on MacOS is a big deal. But even more import is the impact this has for mobile devices. The browser engine which powers Safari is called “WebKit” and that’s the key in the v26 updates because WebKit is the basis of all browsing on iPhones and iPads. So while we’ve been able to use Chrome on MacOS for HDR support for a long time now, the iOS and iPadOS versions of Chrome have lacked HDR photo support because they use WebKit under the hood. This means all browsing on an iPhone or iPad will support HDR (even the mobile version of FireFox, which is now the only notable browser lacking HDR photo support under MacOS).

Let’s put that in perspective using some estimated sales volumes. This update unlocks HDR browsing for all the following hardware already in use:

• iPhone 11 and beyond: thats six years time roughly 225 million iPhones per year for ~1.3 billion phones.
• High end iPads like the M4 Pro (this is relatively small, ~10 million units)
• Apple computers since 2018. That’s roughly 100 million devices, of which 8% use Safari to give us ~8 million people with new HDR browsing support.

These are rough estimates based on web sources and ChatGPT, but it would be fair to say that the total impact here is likely more than 1 billion devices which will soon be upgraded to support HDR photos in the browser.

This is a major inflection point for the adoption of HDR, and should help spur significant growth in 2026. Anyone can already share HDR photos with a large audience on Instagram (see how). You can easily share HDR JPG gain maps on your website (use the “full” size option in the WordPress media library). And I have a list of developer resources for those looking to add support via open source libraries or your own custom tools.

As a note for developers, Safari is also adding support for the new CSS “dynamic-range-limit” property to help manage pages with mixed SDR and HDR content (such as feeds, grids, and portfolios). You may specify “no-limit” to allow full HDR, “standard” to show all images within the SDR range, or “constrained” to allow modest HDR (ie some, but not as bright as “no-limit”).

Multi-tasking in iPadOS 26

The M4 iPad Pro has the best HDR display for a consumer computing device I’ve probably ever seen. It’s “tandem stack” OLED XDR display offers 4 stops of HDR, 1000 nits full screen, perfect blacks, and outstanding color accuracy. You can even use it as an HDR monitor for your Mac! However, it’s software been somewhat limiting for serious work compared to laptops or Surface Pro tablets (which run full Windows). iPadOS 26 makes the iPad a much more practical device for serious work, which should appeal to photographers who wish to travel light.

iPadOS 26 makes several changes to improve productivity workflows, including:

• Support for showing multiple application windows and even overlap them, just like MacOS. This makes it much easier to work across multiple applications at the same time.
• An improved Files app to more easily manage content on the iPad.
• A menu bar for the familiar and powerful options we’ve come to expect from computers.
• The Preview app, for better PDF support (including drawing, annotating, and signing).
• A better cursor, for more precise work with a trackpad or mouse.

So while these aren’t updates aimed at photography, this makes the iPad (which has an outstanding display and camera) a much more powerful and practical tool for photographers.

Here’s a great overview of the updates:

A simplified camera app

The iOS / iPadOS camera app has always been pretty simple. That’s either a strength (easy to use) or a weakness (lack of control) depending on your level of skill and goals. I suspect many photographers will view this as a negative. Options such as portrait mode are now more hidden and take more effort to switch.

Personally, I think there are some good ideas in here. Most people don’t think about photos and videos nearly as deeply as photographers and just want it to offer something pretty good with minimal effort or expertise. My main concern is that showing only 2 modes does not seem simpler. It takes longer to navigate, and users who don’t need other modes will probably encounter the anyway by accidentally over-scrolling.

If you don’t care for the redesign, there are many great alternative apps. And that’s really the beauty of using the great camera hardware built into an iPhone or iPad, there are many options to pick the interface and features you like. I recommend taking a look at Pro Camera or Halide (Mark III coming fairly soon with promises of big updates for HDR), which are both great 3rd-party apps.

The primary limitation with 3rd-party apps is that you cannot launch them from the lock screen camera icon. I would love to see Apple let you assign it to your favorite app. If you have a newer phone with a “camera control” button, you can do that and it is just as fast. Just go to iOS Settings / Camera / Camera Control and select your preferred camera app under the “launch camera” dropdown. One tip: there is a momentary pause when you click it because the phone is trying to use FaceID to unlock the phone. If you look at the screen as fast as possible, you’ll open your camera app more quickly from a locked screen.

End of life for old Intel-based Macs is now more clear

If you don’t already have an Apple Silicon MacBook Pro,  the M1 and later 14-16″ laptops are truly stunning. Outstanding HDR displays, performance, and battery life make any of them an enormous upgrade over the previous generation of Intel-based processors. But if you’re eager to keep the computer you have for as long as possible, Apple just offered more clarity on when you can expect to start seeing software issues with those old computers.

Apple announced that MacOS v26.x (“Tahoe”) will be the last update for Intel-based machines, no MacOS 27 for you. There may be ongoing security updates for a while, so they should be viable for about 2 more years.

On the flip side, Apple also announced that Rosetta 2 will remain through MacOS 27 (ie good until fall of 2027). So we have about 2 more years before old software stops working on new computers. If you’re still using Rosetta2 for some program, I would contact the vendor and let them know you’d like to see it updated to run natively on Apple Silicon. Not only will that keep working into the future, but the program should run twice as fast. Though candidly, it’s been almost five years and most software which hasn’t been updated for Apple Silicon already is probably a sign that it’s abandoned and you should start considering alternatives. I can’t think of any widely used photography apps which still require Rosetta, but please comment below if you know of any.

What’s missing from the v26 updates?

I’m skipping over some minor details like new developer APIs to add an HDR color picker to apps, so even my tailored list for photographers is incomplete. There’s a lot in the v26 lineup. There are also a few things I’ve been hoping to see, but have not so far. WWDC only covers the highlights and there are often many great features which are simply not mentioned in the keynote, detailed sessions, or even in the first developer betas. And many interesting features always come after the initial major updates every fall in the various “dot” releases.

I have not yet seen an indication that the following updates and fixes are in the v26 updates:

• Support to share HDR images over AirPlay to show them via AppleTV? Most people have big screen TVs and this would be a very powerful way to show gorgeous images.
• Support for HDR photos in the TvOS Photos app? AirPlay would likely get more use, but this would be a great way to passively update the content on the TV as well as support automatic slideshows on the TV’s screensaver.
• Fix for the iMessage bug where HDR photos are not transmitted as HDR? Support was announced last year, but hasn’t worked so far.
• Fix for sending AVIF images via iMessage? This is a great format to save space and share HDR, but so far I’ve only seen them show as unusable thumbnails when texted.
• Fix for syncing HDR images via iCloud?

If you’re aware of other key updates which you think would be of great interest to photographers, please comment below.

The remaining HDR gaps in the Apple ecosystem are getting smaller and smaller. The overall support is tremendous and it’s great to see year after year improvements and expansion of capability. This year’s Safari support is greatly welcome and will be very high impact.

Yoga Aura – the best HDR PC laptop?

The MacBook Pro has had an outstanding HDR display for nearly five years. There is simply no PC laptop on the market which matches its performance for HDR photography, but some new options from Lenovo are finally getting close. In this review, we’ll look at how well it meets the needs of photographers and how it compares to the MacBook Pro.

The 2025 Lenovo 2-in-1 Aura Edition offers:

• A DisplayHDR True Black 1000 certified OLED monitor (Lenovo is the only company to achieve this thus far)
  • Up to 1,100 nits peak
  • 14″ or 16″ size
  • Delta e < 1 for great accuracy out of the box
  • Touch screen with a completely flexible hinge lets you use it like a tablet (similar to Surface Pro) or fold it into a tent shape to show movies with a very narrow footprint.
• Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 256V or 258V CPU
• up to 32GB RAM
• up to 1TB SSD
• WiFi 7
• BlueTooth 5.4

HDR display

Display HDR True Black 1000 offers a stunning level of support for HDR photography, and Lenovo is the first company to be certified for this level of performance. I saw the Lenovo 2 in 1 Aura Edition Laptop a couple weeks ago at a conference and was immediately impressed. I ordered one immediately to replace my 600 nits OLED PC laptop. Put simply, this is a stunning upgrade and a truly gorgeous display unlike any other PC laptop I have ever seen (at least with an Intel chip, the SnapDragon version of this laptop caught my attention last year – but Adobe does not support Photoshop plugins under the ARM version of Windows).

The Yoga Aura realistically offers up to 3.5 stops of HDR headroom, very good color accuracy, and a great HDR experience. This is the first HDR PC laptop I can recommend without hesitation, this is a great OLED monitor. If you have a strong preference for Windows and want HDR support in the laptop display itself, this is a very unique and compelling product.

There are options to upgrade the display to a higher (4K) resolution, DO NOT choose the upgraded display. The base resolution is already excellent and the premiums display is actually a downgrade as it offers less HDR capability.

To use the Aura for HDR, it is important that you make a couple of changes in Windows System Settings / Display:

• Enable HDR mode. This is required for HDR support.
• In the options available by clicking > next to the HDR toggle, slide the “HDR content brightness” to the far right (100). This ensures HDR highlights won’t clip when viewing content (this is a confusing control and I would prefer to see Windows improved to eliminate it).
• See my HDR setup and troubleshooting guide if you have external monitors or other questions.

How does it compare to the XDR display in the M4 MacBook Pro (MBP)?

• The Aura offers perfect blacks (as it uses an OLED display).
  • This is nice for watching movies in a dark room, but the benefit is fairly modest for photography.
  • There is a very clear difference under extreme conditions (deep shadow detail when viewing in a dark room), but this isn’t applicable for most real edits.
  • The highly reflective glossy display on the Aura further limits your ability to appreciate the deep blacks unless the room is very dark.
•  The MacBook Pro (which uses a mini-LED display) offers up to 1600 nits peak vs 1200 for the Aura.
  • In practical terms, this means you’ll see about an extra 0.5 stops of HDR headroom.
  • This is very nice to have, but the Aura does very well.
• MBP offers more accurate display for very bright HDR content, as it almost always avoids the need to use ABL (automatic brightness limiter):
  • Full screen: MBP offers 1000 nits vs 600 nits for the Aura.
  • 50% window: Aura supports 975 nits
  • Realistically, either can handle a wide range of HDR content under controlled lighting. Where the MBP pulls ahead is when using the display in bright ambient light, which isn’t ideal for editing even if the MBP offers a more accurate display in that scenario.
• MBP can be more easily used for productivity in bright ambient light
  • The optional nano-texture coating on the MBP significantly reduces reflections for a much more readable display in bright surroundings. If you turn off the display outside, you’ll see a matte black screen with zero reflections.
  • If you similarly turn off the Aura display outside, it’s like looking in a mirror. The reflections are very notable.
  • MBP offers up to 1000 nits SDR (600 via manual controls, 1000 when variable brightness at max and bright ambient light)
  • Aura offers 450 nits SDR
• MBP is easier to use for HDR thanks to MacOS
  • The MBP supports HDR with default settings. There is nothing you need to do, everything just works and looks amazing by default – whether you wish to edit for HDR, print, or do productivity work.
  • To use HDR in the Aura, you must enable HDR mode in Windows System Settings / Display. You must further go into the HDR sub-section and move the “HDR content brightness” to the right (100) in order to avoid some highlight clipping which you will otherwise see under the default settings.

Overall, this gives the MBP a modest but clear edge over the Aura under controlled lighting. Many photographers probably wouldn’t notice the difference if you didn’t put them side by side in that scenario. But in bright ambient or outdoor conditions, the MBP has a substantial advantage over the Aura. The optional ($150) nano-texture coating is a game changer if you travel with the laptop or otherwise use in bright conditions.

Performance for Photography

The Aura offers a few configurations based on display size, with the 16″ offering the highest performance options. The current lineup choices are:

• 14″ with Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 256V with 16GB RAM (do not buy this)
• 14″ with upgraded Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 258V Processor and 32GB RAM (for $80, everyone should get this upgrade)
• 16″ with Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 185H 32GB RAM (the GPU may be upgraded for $200, which is probably not high impact unless you do video as well)

The 14″ comes with a 512GB hard drive and an optional 1TB upgrade (whereas only the 1TB is offered on the 16″). The upgraded processor and hard drive are a no brainer on the 14″, and the upgraded GPU on the 16″ probably isn’t worth it for more users. So you’re probably looking at $1550 for the 14″ or $1700 for a 16″ with a CPU upgrade from 8 to 12 cores to support better multi-tasking. This makes the 16″ the best choice if you do not care about weight. However, the 14″ is 3 lbs vs 5 for the 16″, so it isn’t a trivial difference.

The 14″ scores a very respectable 65.0 weighted score in my G-Bench tests. That’s slightly slower than the 57 in an M1 Max and about half the speed of the 34 in an M4 Max. However, those are the highest level CPU upgrades offered by Apple in laptops which cost roughly $8,000. I do not have performance data for Apple’s entry-level M3 or M4, but I would expect the least capable MBP outperform the Aura – but at a level where the Aura is still competitive.

Black Magic Disk Speed shows 3400 MB/s write and 3800 MB/s read speeds. This isn’t nearly as fast as the M4 MBP (8700 and 5300), but is still incredibly fast. Very few people would notice the difference, this is a very fast internal drive. And if you need external storage, the TB4 ports will support very high speeds.

Battery life and fans

I’ve been quite impressed with the battery life on this laptop. I had expected it would lag significantly behind the MBP because it has an Intel rather than ARM processor. Not only did I find that not to be the case, but it actually outperformed the MBP in my (limited) testing. I charged both to 100%, set the display to roughly the same brightness, and then had them play the same YouTube HDR video for a couple hours and a run a series of the same tests in Photoshop. At the end of my tests, the MBP was down to 22% while the Lenovo was 34%. While hardly scientific and your results will vary based on usage, I believe the results at least indicate the battery life on the Aura is generally pretty good. As a photographer, I’ve never seen battery performance on the MBP come close to the all day stats you see for simple tasks like watching video or web browsing, and you’ll similarly find the Aura does well but is going to need an outlet to make it through a full day.

I was rather surprised at the Aura outlasting the MBP for a couple of reasons. The Intel processor was one concern (vs the efficiency of ARM), and the other was heat given my experience with the fans. Unfortunately, the fans run quite often on the Aura on moderate loads. They aren’t terrible, but it stands out in comparison to the MBP, where you almost never hear the fans in normal use. When running my G-Bench test, I measured 22 dB ambient noise most of the time (which is to say zero noise, that’s just the ambient for the room). The fans briefly hit 27 dB, giving an average reading of 23 dB for the entire test. On the other hand, the Yoga was at 38-41 dB most of the time, for an overall average of 37 dB. You are going to hear this laptop in quiet environments.

I initially thought the fans themselves would draw quite a bit of power and be a concern, but these cooling systems seem quite different. The Aura case does not conduct much heat and it relies heavily on the fans to remove heat. The MBP’s case actually is much warmer to the touch and appears to be a significant source of passive cooling that helps minimize fans. This means the Aura is more comfortable sitting directly on your lap, but the hotter exterior of the MBP isn’t a serious concern.

Other features (ports, speakers, etc)

The Aura is a well rounded machine which generally compares very well with the MBP in other areas:

• The Aura offers a touch screen and highly flexible display hinge.
  • You can directly tap, type, and swipe on the screen like a Surface Pro tablet. You can purchase a stylus to help use it as a tablet, which I find very interesting and intend to get in the near future.
  • When folded like a tablet, the keys are disabled. You can just use a stylus or your fingers and don’t need to worry about accidental key presses – even though the keys will be exposed on the bottom.
  • You can also fold it into a tented shape to use for showing movies while taking less horizontal space or to make it easier to use as a tablet without a keyboard under your hands.
  • These capabilities are probably not critically important to most photographers, but they are unique to the Aura and will certainly appeal to some users.
• Connectivity:
  • MBP offers 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports (TB5 with the Pro or Max MBP). Lenovo offers 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports,  1 very high speed USB-C (USB4) port, and a USB-A.
  • MBP offers an integrated SD card reader and HDMI port. The Aura lacks these, but you can support these via cheap dongles.
  • Both offer a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.
  • Both offer fingerprint readers (to set up the Aura go to Windows settings / accounts / sign-in options / fingerprint recognition). The Aura can also use its camera to log in via face detection.
  • Both offer great wireless connectivity, with the Aura being slightly better for the future (WiFi 7 and BlueTooth 5.4 vs WiFe 6e and BlueTooth 5.4).
• The speakers on the Aura are excellent and I find compare well with audio experience the MBP.
• Both have attractive designs that look and feel like high quality computers. However, fingerprints are rather obvious on the Yoga (but you rarely see them on the MBP).
• The 14″ Aura is half a pound lighter than the MBP, while the 16″ Aura is slightly heavier than the corresponding MBP.
• The keyboard and trackpad are great on both (I personally find the extra keys on the right side of the Aura keyboard a bit awkward, but it’s probably just a matter of getting used to it so that I don’t alter performance or white balance by accident when trying to click the backspace or enter keys).

Conclusions:

The Aura is an excellent laptop for HDR and the first PC laptop which has truly impressed me for HDR. The display is incredible, and I was very happy with performance and battery life for a more friendly laptop. The fan noise is unfortunate, but not a deal breaker. The biggest limitation are the limitations for upgrading to premium options which might appeal to those with larger budgets.

If you need or strongly prefer a Windows laptop for HDR photography, it’s a great option. If you are open to MacOS and have a moderate budget, the MBP is a better option for most photographers given overall performance, premium options (especially the anti-glare screen), lack of fan noise, and the simpler HDR experience offered under MacOS vs Windows.

If you are open to either operating system, this is probably a good way to consider your options:

• If you are seeking a budget 14″ display, the entry-level MBP is much closer in price and offers excellent value.
  • Both are great options here, but the 14″ Aura is still lower cost and lower weight.
  • If you’re willing to spend a little more, the nano-texture display on the MBP makes it a clearly better laptop for working in brighter environments.
• If you are seeking a budget-oriented 16″ laptop for HDR, the 16″ Aura clearly offers the best price and value. The Aura is $1,000 less than the cheapest 16″ MBP with 1TB SSD.
• If you have a budget for $2000-5000, MBP offers a wide range of upgrades which put it in a completely different class of computer than the top-tier Aura. You may select the following upgrades:
  • nano-texture display (highly recommended)
  • Much more powerful CPUs / GPUs
  • Up to 8TB SSD (larger is nice, but this is the one option you can add externally and save money)
  • Up to 128GB RAM (48-64GB recommended)
  • (see my M4 MBP review for details on these options)

The Lenovo 2-in-1 Aura Edition is a very exciting development as it helps bring excellent HDR support to a wider audience. It will be very interesting to see when other PC laptop manufacturers offer similarly premium HDR displays, if higher spec options are offered to compete with the most premium MBPs, and how support for SnapDragon / WinARM evolves over the coming years.

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