I was at a baseball game last week and noticed their tripods. The tripod handles were different than anything I have seen before. The pan handle came out like most tripods, but then there was a vertical handle. Since these had long lenses, I am sure these are specialized tripods. Does anyone know what these are?

The handle you saw was likely the zoom demand. They replace the end of the pan handle, and have an elbow joint that can be rotated around to fit the operator's style.

For example: https://alliedbroadcastgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_2134.jpg

Very interesting, the pro version I guess.

Rory, if you’re looking for a consumer version, a few years ago I bought and successfully used the early version of the pan bar below, on my Miller Compass 25 tripod. This is its latest version ...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/816009-REG/Manfrotto_MVR901EPLA_RC_Pan_Bar_EX.html/BI/2855/KBID/3801

Cheers.

Odd this has never surfaced before. I don't bit of studio work still, though all the work is a bit of a travel, and occasionally a bit of sport, and often there's a mix of camera folk with all sorts of backgrounds. If you Google zoom and focus demands you'll see loads of these things from simple ones for controlling a zoom, with record and maybe focus assist buttons, through versions with speed controls for the zoom, and then clever ones with shot boxes - very, very handy for repeating exact focal lengths with a full speed zoom to them so you set up the zoom so the framing is perfect, then you store that. You can repeat exact shots, so in cricket you can have the framing for the batsman waiting for the bowl, then as soon as the red light goes out you press the button and the zoom snaps to the wider shot, then you can go back to exactly the same framing.

The problem is the damn things cost crazy money!

For me, going in to perhaps do cover is when the cameras are set up for BBC style folk where they have focus on the right and zoom on the left, but other ops have zoom right and focus left, so you need to get used to both. I do prefer to have my zoom on the pan handle but the precise angle is down to how high the thing is and if I'm having to stand in a funny place to pan etc. There does seem to be a trend in OB to have the two handles go up, then the handles drop down but this only works when you are directly behind the camera and have a limited left right range. If you go too far your thumb is in an awkward position on the zoom. Oddly, with longer lenses, some people prefer the demands closer to the head, when physics suggest extra weight is better controlled by longer distances to the zoom which reduces the effort. We're all different.