PTZControl

A lightweight Windows utility for controlling a UVC/DirectShow camera's Pan, Tilt, and Zoom (and Roll, Exposure, Iris, Focus) — the same properties exposed in a webcam driver's "Camera Controls" tab — from the command line or from global hotkeys, with savable camera-scene presets.

No dependencies beyond what ships with Windows and the .NET Framework.

Features

• Direct control of pan/tilt/zoom/roll/exposure/iris/focus via the IAMCameraControl DirectShow interface
• Background hotkey daemon with a system tray icon — no AutoHotkey or third-party tools required
• 8 savable camera-scene presets (pan + tilt + zoom), recalled instantly from F1–F8
• Step sizes and device selection persist automatically between launches
• One-off CLI commands for scripting, testing, or troubleshooting
• Handles digital pan/tilt correctly: since crop range depends on zoom level, presets always apply zoom first, then pan/tilt

Requirements

• Windows with a UVC/DirectShow-compatible camera that exposes pan/tilt/zoom controls via its driver

Usage

Background hotkey mode (the main way to use it)

PTZControl.exe

or

PTZControl.exe hotkeys [deviceIndex] [panStep] [tiltStep] [zoomStep]

Runs silently in the system tray. Right-click the tray icon for Status, List presets, or Exit.

Hotkey	Action
Ctrl+Alt+Left / Right	Pan
Ctrl+Alt+Up / Down	Tilt
Ctrl+Alt+PageUp / PageDown	Zoom in / out
Ctrl+Alt+Home	Reset pan/tilt/zoom to defaults
Ctrl+Alt+End	Show current status (balloon tip)
F1–F8	Recall preset 1–8
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F1–F8	Save current pan/tilt/zoom as preset 1–8

Pan and Tilt are available only if the camera is not fully zoomed out.

Any deviceIndex/panStep/tiltStep/zoomStep you pass on the command line is saved automatically and becomes the default the next time you launch with no arguments.

Autostart with Windows: put a shortcut to PTZControl.exe hotkeys in your Startup folder (Win+R → shell:startup).

CLI commands

PTZControl.exe list
PTZControl.exe status [deviceIndex]

PTZControl.exe set   <pan|tilt|zoom|roll|exposure|iris|focus> <absoluteValue> [deviceIndex]
PTZControl.exe move  <pan|tilt|zoom|roll|exposure|iris|focus> <delta>         [deviceIndex]
PTZControl.exe reset <pan|tilt|zoom|roll|exposure|iris|focus>                 [deviceIndex]

PTZControl.exe presetsave <1-8> [deviceIndex]
PTZControl.exe presetload <1-8> [deviceIndex]
PTZControl.exe presets

PTZControl.exe config
PTZControl.exe setsteps <deviceIndex> <panStep> <tiltStep> <zoomStep>

• deviceIndex defaults to 0 (use list to see indices if you have more than one camera)
• move is relative to the current value; set is absolute
• Camera property values must land on the driver's native step grid (see status for each property's step=) — an arbitrary value between min/max can fail with 0x80070057 (E_INVALIDARG) if it doesn't align

How presets work

Each preset stores pan, tilt, and zoom together. On recall, zoom is applied first, then pan, then tilt — because digital pan/tilt crop range depends on the current zoom level, applying zoom first ensures pan/tilt land where you actually set them.

Presets persist to:

%APPDATA%\PTZControl\presets.ini

Step sizes and device index persist to:

%APPDATA%\PTZControl\config.ini

Notes on hotkeys

F1–F8 are registered as global, unmodified hotkeys for preset recall. If those keys are already claimed by something else on your system (media keys, another app's global hotkeys, a laptop's Fn-lock behavior), those presses may not reach whichever app you intended instead. If that's a problem, add a modifier (e.g. MOD_ALT) to the VK_F1–VK_F8 registration in RegisterAll().