It was no more than Wigan deserved as they found Antti Niemi in top form and even missed a second-half penalty through Denny Landzaat.
But with time running out Senegal striker Camara latched on to a mistake by Franck Queudrue to fire past Niemi from 12 yards to seal the win.
As early as the third minute, Wigan's front two of Emile Heskey and Camara showed their intent for the afternoon.
Heskey neatly flicked Kevin Kilbane's pass into the path of Camara, who scooped his right-foot shot high over the bar from the edge of the area.
The Senegalese striker's pace then almost reaped rewards moments later when he made good strides down the left, only to be denied by the diving legs of Fulham keeper Niemi.
Fulham's opening chance came on 14 minutes when the lively Tomaz Radzinski sneaked in behind defender Emmerson Boyce, only to head Zat Knight's teasing cross well wide of the mark.
Camara looked to be the visitors' best hope of making a breakthrough and he again showed why Premiership defences have a hard time when he is playing.
After picking up a loose ball 30 yards out, the former Wolves frontman edged an opening just outside the area and tested Niemi with a curling left-footed shot.
Moments later, Niemi was left motionless by Paul Scharner's diving header from Gary Teale's cross, but the Austrian international's attempt sailed well wide of the right-hand post.
Despite Wigan's dominance it was the home side who should have opened the scoring on 30 minutes.
Instrumental midfielder Claus Jensen rode three Wigan challenges on the edge of the area only to see his curling right-foot shot go inches over the crossbar.
And seconds later, Fulham burst into life again when Radzinksi's testing cross was dummied at the near post by Brian McBride, but no-one was there for an easy tap-in six yards out.
In a first half that was constantly end to end. Scharner would have been disappointed not to have found the target with another header from a Teale cross six minutes before the break.
Unfortunately, Teale's cross was just behind him and his stretching header ghosted past the post instead.
Although it was Wigan who almost pressed the self destruct button after the interval when Kilbane almost put through his own net when he sliced Radzinski's cross inches over his own crossbar.
And in a bizarre trade of chances, Moritz Volz then almost did exactly the same when he headed Teale's cross just wide of his own post.
And from Kilbane's resulting corner Camara's free header at the back post was somehow clawed off the line by the right hand of Niemi, before bouncing on the line and being cleared to safety.
But the game took a major turn on 74 minutes when the visitors were awarded a penalty after Knight handled Camara's goalbound effort off the goal-line.
Knight was only yellow-carded and Fulham were not made to pay when Landzaat blasted the resulting spot kick against the crossbar.
But the home side's joy was short lived as eight minutes later, Knight's clearance was charged down by Kilbane and after Queudrue mis-controlled, Camara ran through on goal to fire past Niemi and win the game.