A method and apparatus for controlling the display of a portable electronic device having a camera application, a viewfinder having at least two viewfinder resolutions, and a sensor array, is provided. When a zoom level of the camera application is 1×, a first image is generated by scaling a predetermined number of rows and columns of pixels of the sensor array to a first viewfinder resolution at a given frame rate. When the zoom level is greater than 1×, a region of interest of the predetermined number of rows and columns of pixels is cropped in accordance with the zoom level and a second image is generated by scaling the cropped region of interest to a second viewfinder resolution smaller than the first viewfinder resolution at a frame rate higher than the given frame rate.