I own a brand new Ativ S and the camera shutter button does not take pictures when pressed. Only Zoom works. So, in order to take pictures I need to unlock screen, launch the Camera App and press the screen. Anyone faced the same problem?
The Windows Phones have a 2-stage shutter button. Is it possible you're only half-pressing the button down? If this isn't the problem it sounds like a hardware issue - can you try to contact the place you got the Ativ S from?
also, if you want to launch the camera from the lock screen, you have to enable that in camera settings. sorry i meant if you want to launch camera when phone is timed out.
go to settings>applications>photos+camera. check box for "press and hold camera button to wake phone" if you want to be able to launch camera when phone is locked.(screen timed out...black). camera should launch from you lock screen without any special adjustments. seems you may have a bad shutter button.