In an embodiment a method for sharing a camera includes separately performing, by an electronic device, in response to an image obtaining request sent by a first application and an image obtaining request sent by a second application, the following operations: creating a first image consumer instance corresponding to the first application and creating a second image consumer instance corresponding to the second application, obtaining a corresponding first image provider instance based on the first camera and the first image parameter set that are requested by the image obtaining requests sent by the first application and the second application and establishing an association between the first image consumer instance and the first image provider instance and an association between the second image consumer instance and the first image provider instance.