The present disclosure provides a camera control method and a mobile terminal. The method is applied to a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal includes an accommodating space for accommodating a retractable camera assembly. The retractable camera assembly includes a camera and a motor, the motor is connected to the camera via an elastic transmission structure for driving the camera to move. The method includes: identifying a current state of the camera when a triggering operation against the camera is detected, where the triggering operation includes a pressing operation or a stretching operation, and the state of the camera includes a retracted state, an extended state, a retracting process or an extending process; controlling movement of the camera according to the triggering operation and the current state of the camera.