It should be noted that before the advent of the focal-plane shutter, reflex mirror, and motor drive even old-fashioned cameras were virtually silent. Indeed, that is one of the reasons that so many great photographers loved using rangefinders like the Leica. They were small, quiet, and unobtrusive.--David Schonau
This quote from David Schonau, raises a good point. [The complete article is about a politician attempting to bring in a law in the USA, that all camera phones have an audible shutter.] While he is correct in that Leicas and similar range-finders are virtually silent, they are STILL cameras. Everybody in western culture knows what a camera is and is capable of, but the dual functionality of a mobile phone camera makes this more of a intriguing and potentially confusing issue. One that is still being debated. It even impacts on an approach and style of phone-camera photography, as seen in That's MR poplabs' stream on flickr. Other people such as Mr Sco, use the device's dual functionality to capture some of the best candid portraiture I've seen in a long time, while I Nancy's candid work draws on a more formal style.
Love the Eastbourne Pier candid portrait work of Mr Sco. Some the phone-camerawork is brilliant. it would be difficult to do that with a Leica--its quiet but it looks like a camera and so hard to get the unobtrusive candid picture.