As an initial test for something more complex, I want to make a simple app that takes a picture when pressing a button and displays it directly within the app, without opening the camera view, and without the camera sound. The best I could come up with is the following code, but still the camera view pops up for a fraction of second before disappearing.

I found a few threads on this but those are about 10 years old and I’m not able to apply the solutions given there.

import SwiftUI
import AVFoundation

struct ContentView: View {
    @State private var image: UIImage?
    @State private var showCamera = false

    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            if let image = image {
                Image(uiImage: image)
                    .resizable()
                    .scaledToFit()
                    .frame(width: 300, height: 300)
            } else {
                Image(systemName: "photo")
                    .resizable()
                    .scaledToFit()
                    .frame(width: 300, height: 300)
                    .foregroundColor(.gray)
            }

            Button(action: {
                showCamera = true
            }) {
                Text("Take Photo")
                    .padding()
                    .background(Color.blue)
                    .foregroundColor(.white)
                    .cornerRadius(8)
            }
            .sheet(isPresented: $showCamera) {
                CameraView(image: $image, isShown: $showCamera)
            }
        }
        .padding()
    }
}

struct CameraView: UIViewControllerRepresentable {
    @Binding var image: UIImage?
    @Binding var isShown: Bool

    class Coordinator: NSObject, AVCapturePhotoCaptureDelegate {
        var parent: CameraView

        init(parent: CameraView) {
            self.parent = parent
        }

        func photoOutput(_ output: AVCapturePhotoOutput, didFinishProcessingPhoto photo: AVCapturePhoto, error: Error?) {
            if let error = error {
                print("Error capturing photo: (error.localizedDescription)")
                return
            }

            guard let imageData = photo.fileDataRepresentation() else { return }
            parent.image = UIImage(data: imageData)
            parent.isShown = false
        }
    }

    func makeCoordinator() -> Coordinator {
        Coordinator(parent: self)
    }

    func makeUIViewController(context: Context) -> UIViewController {
        let viewController = UIViewController()
        let captureSession = AVCaptureSession()
        captureSession.sessionPreset = .photo

        guard let videoCaptureDevice = AVCaptureDevice.default(for: .video) else { return viewController }
        let videoInput: AVCaptureDeviceInput

        do {
            videoInput = try AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: videoCaptureDevice)
        } catch {
            return viewController
        }

        if captureSession.canAddInput(videoInput) {
            captureSession.addInput(videoInput)
        } else {
            return viewController
        }

        let photoOutput = AVCapturePhotoOutput()
        if captureSession.canAddOutput(photoOutput) {
            captureSession.addOutput(photoOutput)
        } else {
            return viewController
        }

        let previewLayer = AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer(session: captureSession)
        previewLayer.frame = viewController.view.bounds
        previewLayer.videoGravity = .resizeAspectFill
        viewController.view.layer.addSublayer(previewLayer)

        captureSession.startRunning()

        DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 0.5) {
            let settings = AVCapturePhotoSettings()
            settings.flashMode = .off // Make sure flash is off
            photoOutput.capturePhoto(with: settings, delegate: context.coordinator)
        }

        return viewController
    }

    func updateUIViewController(_ uiViewController: UIViewController, context: Context) {}
}