GTA:SA's Built-In Incredible Auto-Zoom/Pan Camera

[Fry]

WARNING: THIS IS A VERY BORING THREAD

I see a lot of screenshots with the standard FOV, camera behind the player. It's nice, but the problem is that the player is ALWAYS the subject of the screenshot.
Basically, if you're not part of the thing you're trying to show, your screenshot is most likely going to be low-quality, and produce undesired results.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has a built in camera that can help you get better screenshots of combat.
I'm NOT talking about the camera weapon.
The camera, as a weapon, has its ups and downs. Strictly speaking, the risks outweigh the benefits, making it a poor choice for any recording device.
First of all, it lags other players. That's right, the period after the flash is used for post-processing the photo, and it extends to any player within a reasonable distance of the photographer. The result? Your subjects will get pissed off, and what you're trying to capture won't be worth capturing.

Not many people know about the built-in camera.
There's no GUI, or manual operation mode of it.
There's no settings, and it's not mentioned anywhere in the game.
You can do nothing to activate it.

Let's think about that for a while. You can do nothing to activate it.
Sounds kind of pessimistic, doesn't it?
Well, it's not. I don't mean that it can't be activated.
The only way you can activate it is by doing absolutely nothing.
The ironic part of this is that the best results can occur when minimal effort is put in to work.
So what does it look like?
After your character stands still for a short period of time -- (this means NO camera movement, and no player movement, chat may not disable the camera although I haven't tested it) the camera will find one of the players on-screen that is, strictly speaking, the most "exciting". In single-player, this would mean criminals, gang members, and police events that occur naturally.
Weapon aiming, firing, and player movement can trigger the camera to lock onto the target.
Once the camera locks onto a target, it'll automatically zoom, depending on how far away the target is.
The best part about this is that once a target becomes "boring", aka dead or stops moving, the camera will AUTOMATICALLY pan to a new target.
Enough chitchat. You probably didn't even read most of that.
Just the bold snippets, and any long words. It's a cheap tactic, I know.
I have to get your attention somehow.
Pictures taken with the automatic camera:





As you can see, this is a very exploitable tool.
I'd love to see more combat screenshots using this method.
So? What do you think? Leave a comment.
^{Just my two cents}

[El_Guerrero]

This is a great idea for capturing fights whether it be at FC or at the gangbase. I have noticed the camera before, but haven't thought much of it. Good thinkin'.

[Mike]

This feature works really well to capture race cars for film. I do see it used in some of the nicer videos.

[Richard]

Nice, I of course know this happens but never thought of using this

[Felle]

Nice, I of course know this happens but never thought of using this

Same here

[Turkey]

Nice, I of course know this happens but never thought of using this

Idd

[Peru]

I've always noticed this feature, but since the camara seems to move after a few seconds, I never actually saw it as a great way to film fights. Unless it was planned of course.