Originally Posted by JayUtah

A tripod could have easily been used with the lunar rover.

Quite likely, but not all missions had a rover. You also have the problem of mounting and unmounting the modified camera on a tripod. There are plenty of issues surrounding the use of camera accessories.

I'm not yet convinced a tripod was necessary for panorama photography. Please elaborate.

They could have even used a 'stick' tripod.

A.k.a. a monopod? And how would this prevent the images from being tilted? A monopod is typically used to steady the camera from high-frequency vibrations that affect telephoto photography with shutter speeds below 1/1000 second.

I find it odd that the best quality film record of such an historic event would be filed away in an unmarked vault.

Who has said anything about an "unmarked vault?" The raw data was simply deferred for indexing because it wasn't deemed as important as other Apollo material. I'm not yet convinced that the raw SSTV data is necessarily the best quality data. And it was videotape, not film.

Why would they close down the only building that could read those tapes too?

I'm not sure it has been. But you might consider as a reason the continuing lack of interest in the raw data, since equivalent material in more accessible formats is widely available.

I'm not interested in what you personally find odd. I asked you specifically what exactly you expected to find only in that data, so as to make it a gilt-edged priority to obtain it. How do we know you're not just trumping up some meaningless claim out of the vague semblance of impropriety? Prove it matters.