Nexus 5 / Android 4.4 "setPreviewCallbackWithBuffer" Camera Failure

This video shows a glaringly obvious bug with Android 4.4 / camera when using "setPreviewCallbackWithBuffer". The image is very dim and the intermittent flashing which should not occur is actually what the image should look like sans flashing. While I mention this regression being part of the OpenGL / SurfaceTexture path it actually is a more nefarious basic camera API problem.

This regression affects any app whether a SurfaceView is set as the preview display or a SurfaceTexture is used to receive preview frames if the "setPreviewCallbackWithBuffer" method is used to signal callbacks. The major problem is that this is the most common way to receive a preview frame callback especially for SurfaceView usage. Technically there is a workaround for those using SurfaceTexture which is notated in the bug report.

I have identified precisely what is causing this issue and detailed information including source code and an APK showing the flaw are available here:
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=63067

The likely source of such a regression is that for the Nexus 5 / 4.4 the underlying camera API implementation is being transitioned to the new camera 3 HAL / API. Even though this new API is not available for normal Android developers it is being used internally to implement existing camera API functionality. The big problem though is that it wasn't tested thoroughly at all... Whenever the underlying implementation goes through a major change many regression tests should be run on existing public API functionality. Clearly this wasn't done for the Android 4.4 release.