A quick access / a shortcut to equip the camera could improve the gameplay flow in a beneficial way to the game and the player.
The camera is an essential tool in certain maps, or stories (Chongqing ICA DataCenter, Dartmoor Detective mission)
It is essential in Freelancer in Showdowns to identify the leader among the suspects.
The camera is a bother to select.
It demands to pause, open the inventory, scroll, select the camera.
It breaks the flow.
It is worst if the player has a full inventory. Or if they need to frequently swap between it and other items.
It is exceptional in the main story. Limited to a few maps and situations, well contained.
But it is repeated on Freelancer, and Freelancer usually have more items to scroll through. The player frequently has to swap between it and other items in showdowns, per the more freeform gameplay of the mode.
So I think this wishlist is worthwhile.
In practice:
On console, I would propose holding the d-pad up button.
Quick tapping it holster/unholster item. Holding it currently does nothing.
On PC, either its equivalent, or a dedicated key.
In addition, on behaviour:
Equip/unequip the camera would keep and go back to the previous item
For a pleasant flow.
Visible UI for smooth return and experience?
The usual circle filling?
By the down-right corner, next/above the item UI, to not be obstructive, too distractible.
Have it be a toggleable option in the menu, like the camera shoulder swap is.
Defaulted to off.
To avoid accidental unholster of unwitting players.
PC would have enough spare keys but Iâm on console and d-pad up is to equip/unequip so that would break the game and there are no other spare buttons to use soâŚ
@Combatglue can you also make note for another quick gear shortcuts?
For example, to eqiup/unequip pisol you press 1 on PC, for garrote you press 2, for shotgun - 3, machine gun (smgs, assault rifles etc) - 4, sniper rifles - 5 etc.
Might be a problem with consoles though to implement this, but itâs a massive QoL for PC players would be
Holding the d-pad up button doesnât do anything.
Equip/unequip is quick tap only. Even a fraction of a second of holding doesnât do anything.
It doesnât activate the equip/unequip on release. It cancels the input, the game seemingly sees it as a different command. An empty one.
(I verified before making the wishlist)
As for accidentally using it. thatâs why I asked for it to be a toggle in option for its behaviour. Defaulted on off.
And with an circle filling UI in the corner.
Infamously the shoulder swap wasnât in Hitman 3 at release because the developers thought it confused and was accidentally activated by players in the previous games.
(it admittedly did)
It was added later on, after a year long spammed, repeated community request. As a toggleable option defaulted on off. Best of both worlds.
Eh if you were to have the wrong timing, youâd pull a gun out on an NPC instead of the camera and we all know that would not be good, especially in FreelancerâŚ
I hope they dont implent that on consoles. Or at least with an option to disable.
I think youâre just lazy and donât want to scroll 175 items till you find the camera. And Iâm a kleptomaniac, I take and keep everything.
Jokes aside, the camera could also have a selfie mode, and (it has been asked before a 10000 times, even I asked for this) a camera mode.
You get an item that is only usable in some Hitman 3 maps for some specific stuff (Freelancer aside) but no camera mode??
I personally donât think opening the inventory bar breaks the flow, I actually kinda like it. But thatâs just my opinion.
Another thing that could be (re)done with the camera regarding areas that are too dark is to brighten the âsnapâ that you make. You will see a brighter image for a fraction of a second, but it will always fade to whatever the light level is in that area.
This was suggested a long time ago when Travis was still around. He even asked for clarification on what we meant. So I donât know whether or not he brought that up to the team (at the time). Maybe itâs too difficult to âfixâ.
I suppose if a brighter snap canât be thing, then maybe a brightness slider in the camera controls/settings.
So I think this wishlist is worthwhile. 
