When I take a picture with the LED flash, it lights up for focusing and metering, but then turns off during the actual exposure. That is, the light works, but it turns off too soon and I get a black picture. This happens every time I use the flash, and it doesn't matter if I set it to "auto" or "on." I've tried rebooting the phone.
Further to my post above, the fault reappeared after a day or two. I restored to default, then to backup again and the fault disappeared, only to return after another day's use. I am now waiting for a replacement phone from Apple.
I am also noticing bad performance with the flash. Although the photos are not completely dark, they are often very underexposed, especially when things are partially lit. I can never get the flash to work right in a backlit scene, and it often results in dark or less than ideal exposures. If I didn't know better I'd say it was a software/lag problem timing the shutter release and the flash illumination. Like others have said, the thing is illuminating correctly for focus/metering, and then it's as if the flash goes away when the shutter is released.
I'm curious to know if this is unique to my phone or if this is a systemic problem with all of the iphone 4.
Further to my two posts above about the lack of synchronization between the flash and the shutter, Apple replaced my phone and all is now well 🙂 So, from my experience, if you notice that the flash appears to work but that your pictures are dark (i.e. as if the flash did not fire, even though you saw it do so) then insist on a replacement phone.
Another thing I can report is that even though this fault was apparent as soon as I got the phone, Apple initially asked me to pay about £30 for the UPS fee to deliver my replacement. I pointed out that I had been an Apple customer since the eighties; frequented many tech forums; knew my rights etc., and they waived the fee. It's great that they saw sense and kept me happy (God help them had they not done so because there's nothing worse than a scorned fan), but appalling that their default policy is to charge customers for the delivery of replacement items when the fault is a DOA (dead on arrival).
Also, once the replacement phone arrived, I noticed a misty-glare around most pictures taken by flash. I soon realized that this was caused by flash light reflected off the edges of the hole in my silicon case, which was obviously cut too close to the camera and flash lens. I simply used a scalpel to open up the opening by a few mm and all is now well.
