iOS Camera app is normal for a few seconds, then freezes, blurs and loops

I have an iPhone 14 running the latest version of iOS (18.0). I believe this is a software issue that presented itself a few days ago when I was running a prior version of iOS.

Symptoms/Problem: When opening the default iOS camera app and only when using the rear camera, the viewfinder shows up as normal for several seconds, then the picture freezes, goes blurry, and resets to normal again for several seconds. This process loops indefinitely regardless of the photo mode used (picture, portrait, cinematic, video, etc.). At no point during this process is the phone able to take or save a video or photo with the rear camera. When using a third-party app with rear camera functionality such as Instagram or Snapchat, the camera functions normally. I have over 50% available storage space remaining on both my iPhone and iCloud accounts.

Troubleshooting tried thus far without resolution:

• Reset (soft and manual) iPhone
• Factory reset and restore from latest backup
• Enable/disable camera app in Screen Time settings
• Power off/on
• update iOS to latest version
• Close and reopen camera app

It appears that there are several threads experiencing this issue without resolution -

Camera doesn’t take a picture, freezes an… - Apple Community

Why does my iPhone 14 Pro Camera Freeze? - Apple Community