Support

Frequently asked

Does CamDial work with the built-in camera on my MacBook or iMac?

No — and neither does anything else. Apple’s built-in cameras — in a MacBook, an iMac or the Studio Display — don’t expose hardware controls to any app on macOS, so no third-party app can change their exposure, white balance or focus. Plug a USB webcam into your MacBook and CamDial controls that one. If the built-in camera is what you came for, we’d rather you know now than after you download.

My webcam settings reset every time. Does CamDial actually fix that?

That is the problem it was built for. Save your settings as a preset once, and CamDial puts them back on its own — when the camera reconnects after a sleep or an unplug, and, with a per-app rule, when your meeting app comes to the front. You get a quiet notification telling you it happened, with an undo.

Which webcams work?

Any standard USB video (UVC) camera: Logitech C920, C922 and Brio, Elgato Facecam, Razer Kiyo, Anker, NexiGo, and the no-name camera in your drawer. Cameras differ in what they let software change — CamDial shows the controls yours actually supports and says so plainly when one is missing, instead of showing a dead gray slider.

Do the settings apply in Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and OBS?

In all of them, without choosing anything. CamDial adjusts the camera itself over USB — there is no virtual camera to select, no filter layer, no extra video pipeline. Whatever opens your camera next gets the picture you set: Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, OBS, QuickTime, FaceTime.

Can I adjust the picture in the middle of a call?

Yes. Hardware controls keep working while another app is streaming from the camera, so you can open CamDial mid-call, fix your exposure and watch it change. CamDial never changes the camera’s stream itself while another app is using it.

Do I need to install a driver?

No. USB webcams speak a standard macOS already understands — CamDial sends it the standard control requests over USB. Nothing to install beyond the app, no kernel extension, no restart.

What does CamDial cost?

Free to start: full manual controls, one preset per camera, and automatic reapply on reconnect. Pro is a one-time unlock — unlimited presets, per-app rules, keyboard shortcuts for presets, and the option to hold your settings against other apps, with macOS 27 support included. No subscription. Family Sharing is on.

Is this a replacement for Logitech Camera Settings or Logi Tune?

Logitech has discontinued its Camera Settings app, and Logi Tune only speaks to Logitech hardware. CamDial does the part people miss — real exposure, white balance, focus and zoom — for any UVC camera, whoever made it, and keeps your settings across reconnects.

My picture has moving bands or stripes under my lights.

That is your lighting beating against the camera’s shutter, not a fault in the camera. Open More controls and set Anti-flicker to 50 Hz or 60 Hz — whichever matches your mains supply. It only matters under flickering light, such as fluorescent tubes or cheap LEDs, with Auto exposure on.

Why does my video get choppy when I set a slow exposure?

That is physics, not a fault. Exposure is how long the camera spends on a single frame: at 1/6 s it cannot physically deliver more than about six frames a second, at 1/30 s about thirty. For calls, keep the exposure at 1/30 s or shorter and fix the darkness with Gain or with more light instead. CamDial shows exposure in real units precisely so you can see this coming.

How do I switch presets from the keyboard?

In CamDial 1.1 and later: open the window, go to Presets and click Add Shortcut next to a preset, then hold two of ⌃ ⌥ ⌘ and press a key. The shortcut works from any app, and a small panel under the menu bar icon shows which preset was applied. Preset shortcuts are part of Pro. On macOS 15 or later your presets also show up in Spotlight, and choosing one there applies it.

The camera light stays on although the CamDial window is closed.

That was a bug before version 1.1: if you closed CamDial right after opening it, the camera could stay on — light lit and nothing on screen. In 1.1 it turns off every time, so update CamDial from the App Store. If the light is still on after the update, check whether another app has the camera open, and write to us if none does.

Does CamDial collect anything about me?

No account, no analytics, no network access at all — the app has no reason to talk to the internet and doesn’t. That is what “Data Not Collected” on the App Store listing means, and it is checked against the code, not aspirational.

How do I get a refund?

Purchases go through Apple, so refunds do too: open reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in and pick the purchase. We can’t issue it from our side, but write to us anyway if something didn’t work — it usually means a bug we can fix.

A control is missing, or my camera behaves strangely.

Cameras lie about their capabilities more often than you would think, and each one is its own small puzzle. In CamDial open the window, go to Cameras and choose Copy compatibility card — it puts a short technical summary of what your camera reports on the clipboard. Paste it into an email to us and we can usually tell what happened.