The photo (as well as video) technology in that period was rather primitive—and the logistical challenges of astronauts doing quality photography in the hostile environment were overwhelming.
The U-2 and SR-71 had quite capable and hardy cameras back in those days. Granted, they were mounted in the aircraft, but it's hard to believe we couldn't adapt the hand-held camera technology for the moon missions.
The problem is that if you look at the wide range of photography and the quality it is just not feasible for astronauts (who have many other critical tasks to attend to) to make it happen.
This is not “passive photography”. One problem is that the astronaut gloves have very little dexterity to deal with tiny camera controls over lighting, direction etc.
The book I cited gets into the challenges of the Kodak cameras used—Kodak did everything they could to make it work but at the end of the day their experts knew that mediocre photos were the best could be hoped for—and there was a strong chance that many rolls of film would be damaged by radiation and temperature issues.
The large quantity of professional level clean pictures are not credible imho.
The original Blackbird was designated the A-12 and made its first flight on April 30, 1962.
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation