A method and image processing system determine parameters of a camera. According to the method, an image of a surrounding area is captured by the camera, and camera parameters are initially determined. Furthermore, a three-dimensional geometric description of visual features of the surrounding area is provided. A feature detector is used on the captured image in order to extract visual features. The initially determined camera parameters are applied to the three-dimensional geometric description of the visual features of the surrounding area in order to display said visual features on a feature image. A quantity of the visual features extracted from the image is compared with a quantity of the visual features in the feature image to determine a degree of concordance between the two quantities. The camera parameters are changed repeatedly to determine additional feature images for which the degree of concordance is determined until said degree exceeds a threshold.