A plural-mode, plural-receptor surveillance imaging system and methodology which offer very simple, versatile one-handed control over the operations and viewing orientations of three different surveillance imagers, thus to minimize the tasks involved in controlling the specific surveillance views which are established and presented by these imagers. Provided for allowing such control are a one-hand-operable, intuitive touch-screen and joystick controller structure, and a appropriate computer for translating user control actions accurately into changes in system behavior. This one-handedness characteristic promotes an operational environment in which the larger share of a user/operator's attention can successfully be focused on the received surveillance imagery, per se, rather than upon details of operating a control.