[kaki3152]

Since I'm the instigator of this thread and have some comments to make, here goes. To refresh my memory, I re-read Gen. Doolittle's autobiography, "I Could Never Be So Lucky Again", to see what pre-mission information he had before the mission. There are two specific mentions. On Pg241, he "[A]sks ...General Spaatz [to] prepare target folders to include the best industrial targets located in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, Nagoya, and six other cities from Steel magnesium, and aluminum plants, petroleum refineries, and shipbuilding facilities Besides each target suggestion was listed the reason for its selection." While on the USS Hornet, the crews were briefed by Lt Cmdr. USN, Stephen Jurika, who had been assigned to Japan in 1939 as an assistant naval attache for air at the American Embassy. One of his duties was to locate and pinpoint industrial targets for possible future use.
In short, Doolittle appears to have had sufficient information without needing any aerial photographs. Because of the multiple cities, one single photo recon flight would have been unable to photograph al the possible targets.
This now falls into that category of semi mythical stories of aerial warfare in WWII. Other examples are the Corregidor P-40 that made it to China and the German-American saboteur who planted bombs on 15th AF B-24.