The invention is suitable for the field of mobile terminal technologies and discloses a start control method of a separated mobile terminal camera and a mobile terminal. The start control method comprises the following steps that a machine body detects whether an instruction for starting a picture taking application is received; if yes, a camera starting instruction is transmitted to a communication module of the separated mobile terminal camera through a communication module of the machine body, the separated mobile terminal camera starts an imaging component of the separated mobile terminal camera according to the camera starting instruction, and picture taking and recording are carried out by the imaging component to generate camera data; and the communication module of the machine body receives the camera data transmitted by the communication module of the separated mobile terminal camera. According to the start control method of the separated mobile terminal camera and the mobile terminal, as long as a user opens the picture taking application, the machine body of the mobile terminal can automatically start the imaging component of the separated mobile terminal camera to carry out picture taking or recording, the whole process is simple and practicable, and the using experience of the user can be greatly improved.