A gas insulated switching device with a gastight housing, with switching elements mounted in the housing, having an optical window on which an external camera can be positioned outside the housing on a support element in such, that the contacts and/or the contact positions of one or more switches can be displayed by this camera on a display screen, and with a switchable light source, which illuminates the area the camera is focused on to display the contact positions of one or more switches, as well as a camera system having the switching device. For easier and more cost effective use of a camera system, considering that direct optical control of specific switch positions are often not desired, the camera may be portable and/or positionable only temporarily, and the support element and the camera itself are provided with complementary elements for temporarily positioning the portable camera to the support.