PHONE CAMERAS FLYING OFF SHELVES

by James Keller

Steve MacInnes doesn't know exactly why he wants a camera phone, just that he wants one.

"I'll probably use it for taking pictures of my friends or of my cat," he said Thursday after buying a new purple Nokia at the Halifax Shopping Centre

"It saves having to buy a digital camera."

The 25-year-old Haligonian isn't alone.

American firm InfoTrends Research Group predicts consumers will take home nearly 150 million camera phones worldwide this year. By 2008, annual sales could top 650 million.

With all those cameras out there, some folks are getting worried.

Fitness clubs and swimming pools are banning camera phones to keep the bashful from being photographed in the buff.

Earlier this month, all three indoor pools in Halifax Regional Municipality banned camera phones from locker rooms.

There isn't an official rule book for using camera phones - with the technology so new, there's barely an unofficial one.

"It's hard to say what's appropriate; it depends on the situation," Mr. MacInnes said. "I don't plan on taking pictures of just random people, and you don't want to take (the camera phone) in the gym or something like that."

That's about all the guidance there is - and not everyone shares the same common sense.

"You don't take pictures of people that don't want their pictures taken," said Cindy Rafuse, 19, of Halifax, who's had a camera phone since the summer. "That's kind of rude."

"I would," interrupted her friend, Marisa Conrod, 16, also of Halifax, who is expecting a camera phone for Christmas. "I'm not going to take a picture of a complete stranger, that's like stalkerish. But even if my friends say no - click."

Groups like the Consumer Electronics Association and Internet sites like the online technology magazine CNET and Parentsoup.com have tried creating voluntary guidelines for using camera phones.

Most of the rules might seem obvious - ask before taking photos and don't snap in locker rooms, for example.

Others are more bizarre.

With advice like "Point the lens away from others when you're using the phone, preferably at the ground," from CNET, you'd think you were buying a gun.

Some of the official rules that are starting to emerge take the issue even more seriously.

It's illegal to use them anywhere in Saudi Arabia. Even Samsung, which makes camera phones, has banned them in its manufacturing and research departments, afraid of industrial espionage.

But in most cases, there aren't signs or laws governing how or where people can use camera phones. It's all voluntary.

Andrew Philley of Halifax, who was looking for a phone on Thursday, said he doesn't think camera phones even need their own rules for etiquette.

He doesn't need a camera phone, he said, since he still prefers traditional cameras, but if he had one, it wouldn't change where he draws the line on taking pictures.

"If I wanted to, I can sit with my camera and take a picture of someone from 1,000 metres away and they wouldn't know it" he said, adding that the reasons he doesn't do that wouldn't change with a camera phone. "You just have to have morals."