Does it matter if you enter anything before the "apply"? Is it really ONLY the images in that album?
There are only a few places where the clearCache function gets invoked: the `crop_image` plugin, the edit processing if `image rotation` has changed or if you click on the `clear cache` button (which is not on the image page.), and the overview page `clear cache` button.
So at this point the only speculation would be that Zenphoto thinks some image has changed its rotation.