Has anyone had the misfortune with the coolpix 5400 - shutter / view finder not operating.
Preview works fine, focus seems to be operational and flash still works.
Would appreciate your insight to this.

No, but I have a similar (older) 5000 that I've had very good luck with. A friend talked me into it, as well as a few others and one person is pretty rough on cameras. He sent his in for repair and they completely rebuilt it for a pretty reasonable price. Here's their contact info (http://nikonusa.com/template.php?goingto=inc_service).

My standard questions - is the battery fully charged? You might try pulling it out overnight and trying again. Batteries can do strange things.