From:
Astronaut Still Photography During Apollo

Before Apollo

When John Glenn became the first American in orbit, bringing a camera was an afterthought. An Ansco Autoset 35mm camera, manufactured by Minolta, was purchased in a local drug store and hastily modified so the astronaut could use it more easily while in his pressure suit. At the time, everything that John Glenn did was deemed an experiment. At the beginning of the program, no one knew for certain whether weightlessness would prevent a man from seeing, or from breathing, or from eating and swallowing. Photography was deemed nothing more than a recreational extra.

Not only was little expected of those first pictures taken from space, but there was serious concern that taking pictures of other nations from orbit would be seen as an act of ill will and even one of war, as sovereign and sensitive nations might resent having pictures taken from orbit. But space photography developed quickly. Weather satellites permitted weather predictions as never before, saving lives and billions of dollars. In the first decade of the space program, satellites were orbited for Earth resources and for mapping. Satellites took over many of the intelligence gathering responsibilities that aircraft such as the high-flying U-2 previously provided.