Assault, camera or no, is deserving of a self-defense response. What if was a knife or gun, not a camera? They look similar. I'm not going to wait until I'm bleeding out to find out.

Are you a cop?

What camera do you use that looks like a gun?

> they look similar

Insofar as they’re both…objects?

They don't need to. While it's unlikely to happen to you, people have in fact been assassinated by others who they believed to be a regular camera crew:

https://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/10/06/bindra....

Generally true. But if you decline to engage and they force their company upon you, their behavior becomes unwelcome, and the longer they persist in it the more aggressive their unwillingness to leave you alone becomes.