Camera

The Digital Camera is a device used for taking photographs, differing from an older film camera in that the photos it takes are stored as digital images on the camera's memory.

Solid Snake was given a digital camera (called simply the Camera) by Otacon before his mission on the U.S.S. Discovery. The purpose of it was to capture images of Metal Gear RAY. This camera was, however, a specific type of digital camera meant specifically for missions such as this, with very limited storage capacity.

An actual Digital Camera features in several Metal Gear Solid games as an unlockable item. Unusually, it is unlocked by collecting it. Usually placed in a hard to reach position (or somewhere where one would probably not think to look), if the player completes the game in question with the Digital Camera in Raiden/Snake's equipment, then it will appear in the inventory at the start of the next playthrough (or, in the case of Guns of the Patriots, upon Snake's rendevouz with the Metal Gear Mk. II).

Photos taken with the Digital Camera can be saved onto the memory card (PlayStation and PlayStation 2) or the console's hard drive (PlayStation 3) for later viewing. As the PlayStation 3 allows copying of game data onto a USB drive, photos taken in Metal Gear Solid 4 can be transferred to the a computer. Unlike other games, where the Digital Camera must be used in first person view, MGS4 also features a third person perspective option, where photos can be taken in the third person. In this view, the Digital Camera is controlled by a second controller (reassigning the controller works just fine).