iPhone 13 Pro Max camera out of focus when a face is detected.

The native camera app (lens at 1x) on my iPhone 13 Pro Max immediately goes out of focus when a face is detected in the frame, and refuses to get into focus regardless of tapping on the screen.

it will focus fine when no face is in the frame, but as soon as I pan my camera towards a face, the phone detects it (yellow box appears around face) and it goes out of focus.

i feel like i’ve done everything to fix the glitch - toggle auto macro on/off, toggle lens correction, toggle format (most compatible/high efficiency), toggle prioritise faster shooting, a hard reset, soft reset, restarting the phone, and as of this morning’s last resort: reset to factory settings, and still the problem is there.

am i the only one experiencing this? Or am i missing an easy fix? Thanks in advanced.