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A camera flash will make the Raspberry Pi 2 freeze and reboot

Image: Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi 2 made lots of waves recently, largely because of how advanced it is over its predecessors but still managing to maintain the same low price point. Even Microsoft has jumped on board by offering a version of Windows 10 for free on the devices, much to the delight of Raspberry Pi's CEO.

Unfortunately for Raspberry Pi 2 owners who are trying to photograph their devices, however, the Raspberry Pi 2 has been found to be Xenon flash sensitive. Or as the initial person who reported it on the Raspberry Pi forums called it: 'camera shy.' Any camera with a Xenon flash aimed at the device is causing the device to freeze for a few seconds before rebooting. It's worth mentioning that an LED flash would not cause this phenomenon to happen - it has to be a Xenon flash.

Chips being photosensitive is not unheard of but most manufacturers do take steps to try to ensure that the effect is avoided or minimized. In this specific case, it appears that the chip affected is the power supply chip. While the phenomenon itself isn't exactly new, it does unfortunately speak to some degree to the lack of quality in the manufacturing of the first Raspberry Pi 2 batch and hopefully it's corrected in the next batches that are produced.

In the meantime, check out some of the videos of the phenomenon in action:

Source: Raspberry Pi forums

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