Iphone 4 virtual shutter will not open

Question

I have an iphone 4 running on ios 4 and the problem that I am having is the shutter won't open when I open the camera. All that happens is the little virtual switch that lets you select from camera to camcorder mode flashes quickly and goes back to solid but It won't slide and the shutter stays closed. It doesn't flash everytime but it does if the camera app is closed for a while. Also if I select a thumbnail from the bottom left corner of the camera app it takes a lot longer to go to my camera roll than usual but when I go back to camera from the camera roll, then the slider will let me slide to camera or video but  won't let me slide (greyed out)  for about 15-20 seconds all the while the shutter stays closed and never opens.
The strange part is the shutter opens/closes and takes pictures/videos just fine if I use any other photo/video app. Other apps wil let me take photos/videos and save them in my camera roll just like the original camera app.
I can't take it to the apple store because I don't have warranty, I tried calling Apple and they said I need to replace the camera in my iphone which is rediculous because it works fine with other apps.
This all started randomly after I took a video and my phone froze when I pressed stop recording.
How can I fix this without having to delete everything on my iphone or having to pay for a replacement?

Answer 1

The exact same thing described above is happening me too and by the looks of this and other forums, its happening alot of people.
I have tried restoring from new and a DFU restore and nothing works.
Think Apple need to own up that this is a real flaw with the iPhone 4 and offer a repair or recall.