Why does a flash cause rainbow stripes in my digital photos?

While walking through the streets of Soho in the rain
Danny D. wrote...
After dropping the phone down a cliff (it was either the phone
or the kid I was belaying, and it wasn't an easy choice), the
flash has stripes in it every time it's activated.

One possibility that comes to mind is lenticular striations on the
cover (or lens) over the flash. This might be a prismatic affect
that would only come into play when the flash is used.

Mike "what happens with a flashlight app and a white wall?" Yetto
--
"To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been
premature, and it remains premature today."
- Isaac Asimov

While walking through the streets of Soho in the rain
Rod Speed wrote...
Mike Yetto wrote
Danny D. wrote

After dropping the phone down a cliff (it was either the
phone or the kid I was belaying, and it wasn't an easy
choice), the flash has stripes in it every time it's activated.

One possibility that comes to mind is lenticular
striations on the cover (or lens) over the flash.

That wouldn’t produce anything like the very fine
grained stripes you can see on the first photo.

This might be a prismatic affect that would
only come into play when the flash is used.

Not even possible. Its got to be happening at
the electronics level, not at the optical level.


Yes, that seems to be much more likely, but after spending all
that time at RIT studying photography I had to go to an optical
explanation.

Mike "I didn't have to go to a correct one" Yetto
--
"There’s nothing magical about science. It is simply a
systematic way for carefully and thoroughly observing nature and
using consistent logic to evaluate results. Which part of that
exactly do you disagree with? Do you disagree with being
thorough? Using careful observation? Being systematic? or using
consistent logic?"
- Dr. Steven Novella