4S camera shutter won't open

All of a sudden a few days ago, the camera shutter won't open on my 4S. I can look at my camera roll, but just can't open the shutter to take pics.

Tried:

1) Enabling the camera restriction to "on"
2) Closing the camera app via taskbar and reopening
3) Turning phone completely off on
4) Resetting phone (home+sleep until the Apple logo reappears)

The only thing I haven't done is done a full blown restore, because from what I've seen online it looks like 75% of the people who've had this problem ended up having the phone replaced since it appears as if it's a hardware problem and not a software problem.

Any idea if this is truly a hardware failure? I'm not sure what Apple would charge to replace the phone (no AppleCare) but I don't really care to pay a couple hundred bucks to replace a phone 3 months out of warranty since getting two years out of a phone these days seems like too much to ask I guess. Not really interested in replacing it with my full upgrade coming up in May and rumors of a summer 5S launch.

Hardware or software? If I can confirm it's hardware, I'd rather skip the hassle of restoring the phone.

Took it in, they opened it up to see if the camera pins were in place, they were, they did a DFU restore, nothing.

$80 to replace the camera (yeah right) or $199 to replace the phone (yeah right).

So that makes Apple 2/2 in providing $500+ phones that have failed before two years. This phone has literally never even been placed on a hard surface, same as the other one.

Guess I'm without a camera for the next X months til the new phone comes out.

Rocko1 said:

Tap the camera area while trying to take picture. This has helped others.

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Thanks but no dice.

John T said:

Based on the iFixit price quoted by puma1552, that represents $20 for labour costs. I'd consider that a good deal if you aren't prepared to DIY.

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Agreed. With the tools and shipping it would totally make sense to have Apple do it but I'm not spending that kind of money with the new phone a few months away.

John T. said:

You're "without a camera for the next few months", just because the camera is inoperative?

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Unless I want to be that guy with the iPad...yeah the 4S is my only camera, not sure what's confusing about that concept...

Cynikal.Mindset said:

$10 and 20min to replace the camera...been there, done that on many phones. Very small price to pay to get fixed up.

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Not for genuine Apple parts, I won't use cheap aftermarket parts.

jamaggic said:

my daughters iphone4 was doing the same thing, shutter would not open,, tried all of the usual tricks but nothing worked. Checked available storage and found she had less than 500 mgb,,, removed half of her songs and pics, restarted the phone and shutter works fine

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Thanks but no dice.