[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by Mios 4Me

I placed the sub on the exact center of the yellow mission star in the harbor, raised the scope under bright sunlight and swept it from one end of the harbor to another, then zoomed in on each individual ship, which filled but did not overlap the scope. The TDC identified each ship type every time (two LMT, one LOSF, two gunboats). I even locked on the Position Keeper to each ship.

The camera icon remained greyed out.

I lowered the scope and stayed in that same spot for two days. Tried the same procedure again. The camera remained greyed out and the star yellow.

A convoy came in so I moved to a quiet spot 1 km away but still in sight of the harbor. Moved back and tried again Nada.

Using a save, I stayed there for two days, then sank all the heavy ships and departed at flank. No change in the patrol star.

I'm running 1.5 with most of Bebster's GFO megamod, Midway Balao, and Cheap & Early Torpedoes enabled since just before beginning this career (currently Patrol 11+). The system has been unstable of late but this doesn't feel like that.

If the game is looking for a particular ship type in harbor, how long can I reasonably be expected to wait?

THAT is a good point...i forgot about the target-ship-requirement.
technically speaking, the ship should already be in the harbor when you get there.
since you are playing Stock with Berbster's Stock Game Fixes, you are still playing mostly-Stock.

i went and loaded up Stock to look at the mission in question and there does not seem to be a requirement for you to photograph any one particular ship.
after further review, it is unclear why you do not get the Photo icon to activate.
perhaps someone else has encountered this previously.