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MacbBook Air - camera flickering

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Bart96

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 14, 2020
33
13
Hi, has anyone noticed flickering of camera image on newest M1 Macs? I know that light sources flickers but it looked normal with my previous macs and iPhone cameras
 
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Mine flickers really badly with LED lights. It's so bad that it's not usable. My previous 2012 Air wasn't like this. It's fine with CFL lighting, as those don't flicker so much as LED. Maybe this is something that might be curable by a software update.
 
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Bart96 said:
Hi, has anyone noticed flickering of camera image on newest M1 Macs? I know that light sources flickers but it looked normal with my previous macs and iPhone cameras
Click to expand...
Which year was your previous Mac? The video quality on front camera of M1 MacBook Air is already better than those MacBook air manufactured last few years....
 
MacBook Pro 13 2015 - maybe quality is better but now it flickers so - video calls are nearly impossible with my LED lights, earlier it looked normal
 
All front camera quality of MacBooks without the “light” apple logo are not good because of the “thin” panel..
 
I think its connected with power line frequency in USA (60Hz) and Europe(50Hz) - it should work automatically or maybe manual settings
 
Came here to look for a thread about this. I just tried a video call on Teams and the background is wavy/flickering! It works fine on my MBA from 2012, though?

Does anyone know what the issue might be?
 
prosumer said:
There's a thread on this on the Apple support website. As mentioned above I think it’s something to do with power frequency (50hz vs 60hz) but I’m not sure what the solution is.

Apple thread is here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252075489
Click to expand...
Workaround comment shared from user on Apple support site above:

  • install OBS (https://obsproject.com/download)
  • create virtual camera (Sources - Add - Video Capture Device, choose your webcam)
  • untick "use preset" and adjust fps on that virtual camera from default to another level, use appropriate fps when you see no flicker on the video (for me it was ok to change to 25 fps)
  • start virtual camera
  • you can now minimize the OBS window


As a result, when OBS application is active it changes fps setting on your webcam. So, simply use your regular webcam in Zoom - NO FLICKERING. In Zoom (or another app) in preferences you can choose either physical webcam or virtual one, all will be flicker-free.
 
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