Tell me more about that camera he’s holding. Looks like it weighs 30lbs.

I’m guessing it’s some sort of very large format still camera?

I wanna know too, and how it works because.. he’s not looking toward the target or anything he’s looking up at that black thing? What’s actually going on in this pic?

I believe the black thing is part of the plane further back, and he’s preparing to get a shot.

I think the black thing is the horizontal stabilizer of a North American B-25 Mitchell. The wiki mentions that there were variants made for photography and reconnaissance.