OH MY GOD A LIGHTERWEIGHT KINESIS ASCENT REPLACEMENT! I am the guy who runs around the world to various Drupal conferences since 2009 with a Kinesis Freestyle + Ascent. And I am really sick of the weight of it (and the constant worry of what the heavyweight and kinda sharp steel will do to everything else in the luggage -- this is mitigated by using an adequately small messenger bag for the whole thing but that's a waste of space and adds even more weight). I will try this setup. I will keep you all posted. THANKS!
Also, Manfrotto is high quality. Their (OK, Kata, but Kata is now Manfrotto) backpack is https://medium.com/@chx/kata-bug-205-pl-as-a-monitor-backpack-9bca09db464d my choice of carry on backpack.
Nice backpack! I definitely recommend this setup if you've been using that kit. This is definitely a significant upgrade in every way from the Kinesis Ascent + Freestyle, which was keyboard of choice and personal savior for quite awhile, despite its heaviness, huge footprint, and decent but non-mechanical keys, and somewhat ugly blue-gray colored board. I even think the Ergo Pro+Manfrotto is more stable to type on, which was surprising, considering the ascent kit is made of heavy weight steel. Maybe the only advantage of the Kinesis + Ascent is that it's very easy on that board to set a precise angle and precise distance, and adjust very quickly, but the Manfrotto's are not particularly hard to adjust, it's only that the only guide mark you'll have is the 90 degree notch on the ball head, rather than a notch for each 10 degree increment of angle on the Kinesis, which also allows you to set a particular distance and lock it in, which you can't do here. The Ascent might also be easier to use on a really unstable surface like a bed, where tripods would presumably be difficult. (I may now repurpose my Ascent kit for this use.) But these are rather small advantages compared with the superiority of typing experience with the Ergo Pro. I was willing to give up a mechanical keyboard to get enhanced adjustability because there were no other options until now allowing this degree of angle adjustability for mechanical keyboards (at least that I knew of.) This would be a very easy board to travel with. I took it on the subway the other night to show my sister my new keyboard and would not have noticed it in my backpack at all. I think it was a very wise move by Matias to allow connections allowing 3rd party kits for tenting and tilting when there is already a significant market in good products of this kind, rather than lock people in to a very expensive and proprietery set-up like the Ascent. While there surely are some advantages to the Ascent kit, such as its flat surface, and the ease of setting any angle from 10-90 by a separate notch for each one, and locking in one's distance with thumb screws, I think these advantages are minor and the Ergo Pro + Tripods does everything the Ascent kit does, and adds wrist rests, top quality mechanical keys, nicer looking board, much smaller footprint, and much lighter. I think it's probably better for home use as well, but if you're using this for travel, no question that the Manfrotto plus Ergo Pro would be superior, since the whole thing is super light and the legs can just be folded up and the boards separated and placed on top of each other to take up very little space or weight in your bag.