Camera Beard

“

Is it a beard? Or is it a camera? No one will guess that it is both! Great for infiltrating lumber yards, Canada, and strongmen competitions. — Dapper Rogue Catalogue for the Gentleman Scoundrel

”

The Camera Beard is an unlockable Miscellaneous item for the Spy. It appears as a film camera, cleverly hidden within a bushy, brown fake beard.

The Camera Beard was considered to be a hat in its own right, until the WAR! Update in which it became a Miscellaneous item, allowing Spies to wear it with other hats. A few months after this change, it was reported that the Camera Beard was dropping at an alarming rate. Many users who were able to connect to Steam at the time received one.[1]

On March 19, 2010, a patch was released that saw the Camera Beard (and the Medic's Physician's Procedure Mask) treated as a hat for the purposes of crafting, allowing it to be used as an ingredient in the "Rebuild Headgear" crafting recipe.

Trivia

• This item is perhaps a tongue-in-cheek reference to real-world Spy micro-cameras, which are disguised as innocuous articles of clothing such as shirt buttons or wristwatches.

• Initially, the Camera Beard was rejected by the Spy for being too ridiculous in the Sniper vs. Spy Update Day 4, and he chose the Cloak and Dagger and Dead Ringer instead.

• The Camera Beard can be purchased for the price of $2.49 from Mann Co.'s Dapper Rogue Catalogue.

• This is perhaps one of the most requested hats by the TF2 community since its first appearance in the Sniper vs. Spy update.

• Trying to craft 3 of these together will enable the "Fabricate Slot Token" blueprint, but it won't craft because there is no Misc Slot token. The Camera Beards are not consumed.

• Before the War! update, the Camera Beard was considered very rare, after the War! Update it dropped drastically. Now because you can buy it for as much as a "hatless" the Camera Beard is considered virtually nothing.