UIImagePicker only works with front camera on iPhone 6 plus - ios

Question

Using the following code:
- (void) viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
[super viewDidAppear:animated];
if (!self.alreadyAppeared) {
[self performSelector:#selector(showCamera) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.3];
}
}
-(void)showCamera
{
UIImagePickerController *picker = [[UIImagePickerController alloc] init];
picker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera;
picker.showsCameraControls = YES;
picker.cameraDevice = UIImagePickerControllerCameraDeviceFront;
picker.delegate = self;
[self presentViewController: picker animated:YES completion:NULL];
}
my app works perfectly. However if I change the
picker.cameraDevice = UIImagePickerControllerCameraDeviceFront;
to
picker.cameraDevice = UIImagePickerControllerCameraDeviceRear;
I lose the image. The following code is how I capture the image and set an imageview within my app. I use a Nav controller to return to the app:
- (void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *)picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary *)info {
UIImage *chosenImage = info[UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage];
self.cf.imageView.image = chosenImage;
NSLog(#"%#",chosenImage);
[picker dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:NULL];
// pop back to previous controller
NSArray *myControllers = self.nc.viewControllers;
int previous = (int)myControllers.count - 2;
UIViewController *previousController = [myControllers objectAtIndex:previous];
[self.nc popToViewController:previousController animated:YES];
}
Again, this works just fine on my iPad and it works just fine using the front camera. Even when using the rear camera the chosen image (that I log) appears correct. Does anybody have any idea why the rear camera setting would have such an effect?
One other item: I get this very irritating message that has about 1,000 different explanations none of which get rid of the message:
Snapshotting a view that has not been rendered results in an empty snapshot. Ensure your view has been rendered at least once before snapshotting or snapshot after screen updates.

Answer 1

When using the iPhone 6 and 6 plus, you must prevent your views from reloading each time you navigate away from the camera control (picker). My app uses a View Controller that creates a dynamic view which is a form. Each field on that form is pulled from a web service and becomes a subview of the form. That includes the camera field, which I use a viewcontroller and xib to build the field. The form view builds the entire form through a drawRect method. The camera field attempts to call that method each time it navigates away. I prevent it from reloading and that appears to have solved the issue.
A more standard app may create the camera field dynamically in viewDidAppear method of the main view controller. If you have the main view controller set as the delegate for the camera field, it will still call the viewDidAppear when it navigates away from the picker. That must be prevented or you will lose the image.
The really funny thing here is that this only happens on iPhone 6 and 6 plus. All other devices do not attempt to reload the views ... go figure.