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Set Active Object as Camera a simple function, CtrlNumPad 0, used to change the active camera yet such a problem for so many.

I know the use of it for cameras (quickly switch between multiple cameras), but is there any reason to set an object as the scene camera?

Using blender terminology, I'm specifically asking about objects with the data type of 'MESH', 'CURVE', 'SURFACE', 'META', 'FONT', 'ARMATURE', 'LATTICE', 'EMPTY', 'LAMP', and 'SPEAKER'. (every object type except 'CAMERA'.)

With the scene camera set to a mesh object it will render nothing (or crash blender). So what is the purpose of this?

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As the Manual says

Remember that the active “camera” might be any kind of object. So these actions can be used, for example, to position and aim a lamp.

I don't recall ever doing this, but the reason to use a non-camera object as the scene camera is to take advantage of Blender's camera movement tools to position the object. You can, for example, select a lamp and make it the camera, and then lock camera to view. This way you can navigate around the scene and the lamp moves with you. When you've got it positioned where you want it, unlock the camera from the view and go back to using a reasonable camera.

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    $\begingroup$ For the record, I rendered a scene in Eevee, Cycles, and workbench using the LAMP as a camera. All three worked. As for MESH, it seems the "camera" works from the origin so is usually inside the object. $\endgroup$
    – Ron Jensen
    Sep 25, 2021 at 22:19

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