Manual controls are great if they are well thought out from an ergonomic point of view. But usually they are not and so you have to take your hand off the handles and fiddle around to operate them. Or customise them like I did with my Gates VX2000 zoom lever. It looks awful but it's wonderful to use. This gives me the kind of "fingertip" feel and control that I can't get with electronic controls. It's not just about the reliability.
