Now OK so hence not a question but will maybe help someone else. Brand new NEX 5N with standard zoom kit.
1. Fitted battery and a 2 gig card and switched on.
2. Set date and time
3. Camera appeared to function OK except shutter would not fire.
4. Charged battery fully and re-tried from 2 above. Same problem.
5. Formatted card. and retried from 2. Same problem.
6. Re-tried multiple times.
7. Following morning, switched on and yet again had to enter date and time.
8. Same problem, shutter not firing.
9. Switched off and back on again.
10. Fed up with setting date and time so pressed shutter. It worked!
11. Set date and time. Shutter still works.
I have no idea what was going on but it surely has to be a software issue!
Thrilled with the photos and the speed of operation.