There are 7 ways to open the camera on your iPhone.
On your lock screen there are two haptic buttons at the bottom, (these can be modified, so it may not apply to you) by default your right one is your camera, long press on that and you are in.
Also on your lock screen, if you swipe from right to left, you will access the camera that way too.
From your control center (swipe down from the top right of your screen, by default, you will have a camera icon. This method can be used while using any app.
Find the Camera app on your home page.
If you have an iPhone 15 or later, instead of the mute switch on the left side of your phone above the volume buttons, this is a custom button that can be changed to access the camera too. If set to this, long press on the action button and theres the camera.
if you have an iPhone 16 or later, there is a shutter button on the lower right side of your phone. This can be used to toggle the camera app at any time, anywhere. This can also be used to take a photo and modify some settings. Click once (or twice if programed that way) to access camera. Tip, you can also access what apple calls Visual Intelligence by long pressing this button too.
And finally, just ask Siri/Apple Intelligence to open the camera app. Unfortunately you still can't ask Siri to take a photo.
Shutter Button
click it once to take a photo
hold it down to start recording a quick capture video
Photo Preview
this allows you to access your recent photos you may have just taken or have taken recently
Camera Mode scroll bar
this allows you to scroll left and right to select from Photos, to videos in this order:
(Left to right) Time-Lapse, Slo-Mo, Cinematic, Video, Photo, Portrait, Spatial, Pano
Front & Back Camera Toggle
gives you the option to use the back cameras or the selfy camera
Zoom Camera Control
.5) is the Ultra Wide Camera
1x) is your Main Wide Camera
2x) is using the same camera as the 1x, but with a crop
4x) is your telephoto camera (this can also be 2x, 2.5x, 3x & 5x depending on your iPhone)
8x) is using the same camera as the 4x, but with a crop