<P> A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built - in digital cameras . The first camera phone was sold in 2000 in Japan, a Sharp J - SH04 J - Phone model, although some argue that the SCH - V200 and Kyocera VP - 210 Visual Phone, both introduced months earlier in South Korea and Japan respectively, are the first camera phones . </P> <P> Most camera phones are simpler than separate digital cameras . Their usual fixed - focus lenses and smaller sensors limit their performance in poor lighting . Lacking a physical shutter, some have a long shutter lag . Photoflash is typically provided by an LED source which illuminates less intensely over a much longer exposure time than a bright and near - instantaneous flash strobe . Optical zoom and tripod screws are rare and none has a hot shoe for attaching an external flash . Some also lack a USB connection or a removable memory card . Most have Bluetooth and WiFi, and can make geotagged photographs . Some of the more expensive camera phones have only a few of these technical disadvantages, but with bigger image sensors (a few are up to 1 "), their capabilities approach those of low - end point - and - shoot cameras . In the smartphone era, the steady sales increase of camera phones caused point - and - shoot camera sales to peak about 2010 and decline thereafter . Most model lines improve their cameras every year or two . </P>

What was the first phone to have a camera