Camera suddenly stopped working, black screen in all apps

[Nitetrip]

I'm running Windows 8.0 on my Lumia 1520, and have used the camera flawlessly for 5 months. There have been no mishaps which would have caused physical damage to the hardware. Recently, after taking a few shots one night, the camera stopped activating when opening any camera application: Nokia Camera, Cinemagraph, Blink, or the built-in camera app. Built-in app shows greyed out icons at bottom of black screen, Nokia Camera app only shows black screen. This occurs whether using the camera button to launch an app, or when manually firing an app.

I've tried the following, with zero results:

• Removing and reinstalling Nokia Camera app
• Soft reset of phone
• Ensured phone is fully updated
• Pressed the "reset camera" button under settings + applications...seems to do nothing

*edit* The flashlight app I was previously using also stopped functioning at the same time. *

I've done everything shy of wiping out all my info, mainly to avoid the hassle.

I'm left looking at using the Nokia Software Recovery Tool, or using the Reset Phone option on the phone itself. Any suggestions?

 

[Nitetrip]

I ended up using the Nokia Software Recovery Tool, and an error during the process literally killed the software on the phone. Use the Nokia Software Recovery Tool At Your Own Risk!
After the NSRT download the files needed, with the first minute it sent a command to the phone to shut down/reboot, when an error appeared on my PC which guided me to try soft resetting the phone. At that point, the phone would no longer power on at all- I tried plugging it into a charger with no results; I tried all the series of button sequences I could find to soft & hard reset: negative outcome.

As you can see, I got no warning or suggestion at all from any users, so I felt that the NSRT was the safer way to go, rather than pressing the Reset Phone button....but I really wish I'd done the latter now.
Since I've seen so many people recommending use of the Nokia Software Recovery Tool in this and other forums, I'd like it known that there CAN be issues with it, so be prepared for at least the slim possibility that you might be out of a phone temporarily if this happens during your attempt. I'm now awaiting my replacement phone in the mail.