I've been following this thread since OP first posted it and have been intrigued by the images, and more so by the video on page 3 (this is my fist post I still don't know how to quote) in which you can clearly see the flares moving as the cameraman moves the camera around, but the object remains stationary.

Here's my 2 cents:

I'm by no mean an expert and maybe smartphone cameras don't work like "regular ones" and there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this; but isn't lens flare supposed to be shaped like the blades in the shutter? I mean, you need pretty good lens with 9-blade shutter (such as L series) to get smooth, circular flares, and even then they're not perfectly round.

Here are a couple of examples:

[link to farm4.staticflickr.com]

[link to farm5.staticflickr.com]

[link to farm5.staticflickr.com]

Also note that most flares are slightly elliptical or distorted opposite to the light source when it is in the corner of the frame due to the curvature of the lenses (which is more intense around the edges), much like this:

[link to farm4.staticflickr.com]

Only way perfectly round flares make sense to me is if they are shopped or if the light source is directly in the middle of the frame, in the lens "sweet spot", but that would most likely make a circular flare *around* the light source, like this:

[link to farm5.staticflickr.com]

I don't know if it makes sense, but no one else seems to have mentioned this. At this point I'm not sure "lens flare" is a reasonable explanation...

Until we get to the bottom of this,