h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oddly enough, the controls for a pedestal mounted camera differ in Britain and the US. There are two main controls for a studio camera, focus and zoom. In the UK (and many other countries) the servo controls are focus on the right and zoom on the right. This is justified by the focus being a fine motor control (more minute movement) and zoom being a grosser motor control (usually a thumb controller).

In the US it is the other way around, and being a bigger market, Japanese lenses have the control cables coming out of the left of the lens for for focus and the right for zoom. This can be a problem when the focus is mechanical rather than servo and the odometer style cable has to be bent to fit. I know of this personally since most of the *old time* camera operators in Canada where I live (like myself) use the UK method.

Anyway, long story even longer, could the left hand / right hand drive question have anything to do with the gross motor skill required in shifting large manual transmissions on large trucks? I know lorries in the UK are seldom as big as the huge two or even three stage trucks that are on the US highway system. I realise it's the cart after the horse so to speak since the big trucks came later but initially did the US vehicle manufacturers try to give a bit of an advantage when shifting gears? Double-clutching can only help so much.

Just a thought.