IssueTracker

Camera.open() occasionally hangs without throwing an exception

In using the camera on my brand new dev phone 1, I regularly run into the
situation that Camera.open() completely "hangs".

Then (quitting and) restarting my program with camera=null and testing with

      Log.i("OIC", "JUNKcam0");      
      if (camera == null) {
         Log.i("OIC", "JUNKcam1");
         try { camera = Camera.open(); }
         catch (Exception e) { Log.e("OIC", e.getMessage(), e); }
         Log.i("OIC", "JUNKcam2");
         camera.setPreviewDisplay(holder);
         Log.i("OIC", "JUNKcam3");        
      }
      Log.i("OIC", "JUNKcam4");        

gives as output only

 JUNKcam0
 JUNKcam1
 
Apparently, Camera.open() itself hangs without causing any exception, such
that there is nothing that I can trap and act upon. I can then also not use
the built-in camera app, as it gives just a black preview screen and a bit
later a message about being unresponsive when I try to interact with it.
Since in the above code snippet <camera> was already null (at program
startup), there is just nothing that I can release: no camera.release().
Killing apps also does not help, and in fact I could not find any means to
get the camera back *except* by applying the phone's power off and then on
for a reboot! That's pretty awful! Is there any workaround (let alone a
fix) for this horrible camera behavior?
 
Thanks