I'd love a proper DSLR camera in GTA 6, not just a phone snapshot

I keep coming back to this idea every time I see a new screenshot or trailer. The phone camera is fine for quick snaps, but imagine if Rockstar gave us an actual DSLR as an equippable item. Something you carry in your weapon wheel, pull out, and actually use in real time, not pausing the game to line up a shot.

Adjusting shutter speed, aperture, ISO on the fly while the world keeps moving around you. Long exposures at night on Ocean Drive with all the neon bleeding into streaks. Or catching a lightning strike over the Everglades with a fast shutter. The lighting in the trailers already looks incredible, so the raw material is there.

RDR2 had a pretty decent photo mode and the in-game camera was fun to mess with, but it was still a bit limited. I'm thinking something closer to what you'd get in a game like Gran Turismo with its scapes mode, but fully integrated into the open world. You could even have photography challenges tied to the social media app on Lucia and Jason's phones, like getting a certain number of likes for a well-composed shot of a specific landmark or event.

It doesn't need to be a full simulation, but a few manual controls would go a long way. Rockstar already puts so much detail into the environments, giving us a tool to really capture that would be a nice touch. I'd probably lose hours just wandering Vice Beach at sunset with a telephoto lens.

Source: r/GTA6 · Curated content.

I'd kill for a proper DSLR just to read signage on distant downtown Vice City buildings from the north end of Vice Beach. (The draw distance in V's Los Santos always fell apart when you scoped out northern LS from the Del Perro pier.) Imagine picking out Mount Kalaga's ridgeline from the Leonida Keys with a real telephoto. Give me a reason to hike the western edge of the Grassrivers at golden hour.

ok so i've been thinking about this since trailer 2 dropped, the way the light hits those Ocean Drive art deco strips at dusk is way too pretty to just capture with a phone ui slapped over the screen! i'd love an actual equippable camera you pull out like a weapon, let the world keep moving while you're framing up a shot.

Imagine picking out Mount Kalaga's ridgeline from the Leonida Keys with a real telephoto.

that's exactly the kind of sightseeing that would make the map feel massive. and if Rockstar ties it to some kind of social feed on Lucia and Jason's phones where your shots actually get traction based on composition, that's hours gone just chasing golden hour over the Keys! they already built this ridiculously detailed state, just give us the glass to see it properly.

I'd love a proper camera for those Vice Beach sunsets. Here in Brazil we got beaches just like this, would feel like home.

They love showing off toys in trailers. Then launch day hits and you're holding the same phone from GTA V.