Certain aspects relate to systems and techniques for flash collision detection, compensation, and prevention. For example, the flash of another camera or other sudden increases in ambient lighting of an image scene can introduce unwanted quality degradations into captured images, for example over-exposure of part or all of the captured image. Flash collision can be detected through a row sum calculation and comparison process in some examples. In some examples, flash collision can be compensated for by analysis of row sum data from a number of preview frames. In other examples, flash collision can be mitigated or prevented through use of a flash traffic control protocol.