Adobe partners with Nikon, Leica for image authentication

Adobe announced at Adobe MAX a partnership between the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) and Leica and Nikon to implement provenance technology into two exhibiting cameras: Leica’s iconic M11 Rangefinder and Nikon’s industry-leading mirrorless camera the Nikon Z 9. Today’s milestone will allow photographers and creators alike to increase trust in their digital work by securely attaching valuable provenance information at the point of capture, including when, where and how each image was captured. These details establish an image’s attribution and trustworthiness from the start, which helps protect against the spread of misinformation by empowering consumers to identify the origins and edit history throughout the digital content lifecycle.

“As iconic global brands, Leica and Nikon have empowered photographers to capture some of the most significant moments in modern history,” said Dana Rao, chief trust officer and general counsel at Adobe. “Together with CAI, Leica and Nikon will enable their global customer base to attach provenance to their images at the point of capture, creating a chain of authenticity from camera to cloud. We’re thrilled to have Leica and Nikon partner in the CAI’s mission to restore trust in digital content.”

The CAI is an Adobe-led initiative with more than 800 partners working to increase trust online through provenance, which are the facts about the origins of a piece of digital content. Authored in partnership with CAI, the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) standard is being implemented in cameras for the first time. CAI is seeing accelerated adoption of its standard through these partnerships, and broad availability of free CAI open-source tools powering them.

Both Leica and Nikon are incorporating the C2PA standards in their respective cameras, where each image is provided with a forgery-proof signature documenting essential information, such as camera model, manufacturer, and image content. The first available Leica cameras with the C2PA standard are planned to ship in 2023, while Nikon says the comapany is developing the C2PA provenance functionality for a future camera model.