A new hard X-ray (HXR) camera system has been planned to be developed for HL-2A tokamak (R0 = 1.65 m, a = 0.4 m, Bt = 2.8 T, and Ip = 0.5 MA), which is dedicated to the tomography of fast electron bremsstrahlung emission in the energy range 10 to 200 keV. The camera system includes two independent HXR cameras, which are both located in the same poloidal plane. Each camera is made up of 30 detection chords and views the whole poloidal cross section of the plasma. The spatial and temporal resolutions of the camera are 2 to 3 cm and 1 to 2 ms, respectively. HXR detection is performed using cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductors. Both simulation and experimental results suggest that an Al foil with a 0.3-mm thickness is the best candidate for filtering the low-energy X-ray photons. Powerful inversion techniques are employed to obtain the local HXR profiles as functions of time and photon energy. The HXR camera system planned for HL-2A tokamak is presented in detail.