A camera control device and a method for operating a mobile terminal having a single camera module in selected modes to reduce the power consumption of the mobile terminal is disclosed. The camera control device for a mobile terminal includes a camera module, a memory, and a control unit. The camera module has a sensor for photographing an image. The memory stores tables which are provided for respective modes of the camera module and which include camera register values set for each mode and stores initial values of the sensor for the respective modes to initialize the sensor of the camera module. The control unit determines a mode of operating the camera module, extracts camera register values for the mode from a corresponding table stored in the memory, and operates the camera module according to the extracted camera register values to implement the corresponding mode.