Camera flickering during FaceTime on new iPad Air?

I have the same issue too (in Europe). I understand what you say and most likely it is the problem of camera not matching the bulbs, but all other iOS devices are fine. There needs to be a fix because camera is unusable indoors.

Hey Kelly,

We hear your report on the iPad Air and would like to help. Let's look into this together.

Let's start with the steps to Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Can you confirm if this happens on the latest software version?

You mentioned this only happens when recording video, have you tested another app besides FaceTime or the Camera app?

Restart your iPad and try again. Does this make a difference?

Cheers.

Hey Kelly,

We understand you've tried the suggestions we already mentioned. If an app unexpectedly quits, stops responding, or won’t open the page here will review steps how to remove and reinstall it.

If this continues after all of these steps we'll need to Contact Apple Support. They'll be able to run diagnostic on the hardware, and further isolate if this is related to software or the camera itself.

Cheers.

Hi:

I didn’t post the original question but have the same issue with my new iPad Air. After a long chat with online support from Apple I was advised to return it and get another. I did this and the new one has the same issue!

The screen flickers when using FaceTime when in a room with overhead lights. The screen also flickers when recording video or any apps that use video, such as Zoom.

On both iPads I had the latest iOS and I also tried a complete factory reset (twice) with download over iTunes. That did not work. I tried a soft reboot and adjusting auto brightness. Also tried adjusting video recording settings. The only thing that made a slight difference was setting auto FPS to 30 & 60. However it is essentially unusable for FaceTime or Zoom due to the flicker.

As a comparison, my old iPad Pro works perfectly well in exactly the same lighting conditions.

Thanks for any help!

Are you using your iPad Camera in artificial light - such as incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tube lighting? This is often a cause for a strobing/flicker when the camera shutter doesn’t match the electrical frequency of your AC mains.

Whilst the physiology of the human eye generally hides the flicker from artificial lighting (typically 50/60Hz - depending upon your region), the camera shutter speed interacts with the lighting flicker; what you generally perceive is a flicker whose frequency is the difference between the AC Current frequency and the shutter.

If you’re not filming under artificial light, you may have an entirely different issue...

I went through several levels of support and after talking on the phone with Engineer, I was told to bring it to warranty service. His logic was as follows: if you reset to factory settings and it is still going on, it must be the hardware.

In my case, the problem only occurs under 50Hz artificial lights. Our family have had numerous iPads and iPhones without the problem. As above, in my case it's only the front camera that has the issue which to me suggests a hardware problem. That was also Apple's conclusion.

I'm from Europe. It isn't all iPads, just the new iPad Air, and in my case just the front camera.

It only happens under artificial light, so it is possible that it's a problem specific to Europe.

In Europe artificial lighting operates at 50 Hz, in the US it's 60 Hz.

Thanks! yeah, i get it that it is because of the lights and looks like only this iPad air.

However, having in mind that apple sold 14.3 million iPads just in one quarter 2020, there should be millions that landed in 50Hz zones (most of the world). How is it that we have only 19 upvotes in this thread and no one else complains about it?

Apple support says that is hw failure. Technicians try to tell me this is by design or faulty design.

To sum up, I think there might be just a bad batch of iPads that we got unlucky with. Otherwise it would be more widely known. However, just as someone mentioned, if you get a replacement, most likely you would end up with the same issue. same batch?

I've sent mine back and am expecting a replacement next week. I'll post on here whether the problem is still present.

My conclusion is the same as yours, a HW failure which is hopefully limited to just one batch. If the new one has the same problem, what would you suggest I do next?

I will try to escalate it as much as possible to apple beyond this forum. Perhaps there is software patch. Or they need to do a recall. If they can isolate by serial numbers a batch it would be great. Yeah, please let us know how replacement goes.

I'm in the Netherlands, my iPad Mini camera works perfectly well under artificial lighting, so is not all iPads! I bought the Air mainly because of Zoom meetings and Facetiming which I do evenings, but I've had to revert back to my old iPad, the flickering was annoying, such a disappointment. I haven't bothered to send it back because of what I've read here, seems like they all have it.

I’m in Europe and the Air 2020 is the only iPad model I’ve owned with this flickering issue. Apple told me to return it and I did. The new one I got has exactly the same problem.

I suppose it must be the shutter speed - light frequency issue, but why is this not an issue with my previous Air model, or my work iPad Pro (original model)?

I actually feel totally ripped off by Apple and I say this as a dedicated Apple customer. I also don’t get why everyone with one of these isn’t complaining about this. It just makes me angry every time I look at this fancy £600 device that can’t perform a most basic task.

If as a previous poster says this is a European issue, why is the device sold here without a warning notice about the crap video? It’s not as if I can have all my Zoom calls in “natural light” as I was “helpfully” advised.

Sorry for the rant.

I intend to contact the store where I bought it and ask if any others have returned it for that reason. All the reviews were good, none mentioned the Zoom and Face Time issues. I also placed a good review, but I was asked to write one after having it only a few days and I was pleased with everything else. I thought maybe the flickering was an internet or wifi issue, but had my wifi checked, no probs and was told I had a fast internet connection. After posting on the forum I tried videoing inside in the evening (hadn't done that yet), also flickered. I tried it in the daytime, was ok. So it is with both front and back cameras on mine.

That's a shame! I contacted the shop where I bought mine (in Amsterdam), told them it should be a "- point" with the product details, but isn't listed as such. They weren't aware of this problem, all of their reviews are good (maybe none had yet used the camera with artificial lighting). They will investigate and see what they can do with the feedback.