My requirement for a new case were as follows:

  • Small Size – The 5700 is an incredibly powerful, yet extremely compact digital camera. Because of its compact size I tend to bring this camera everywhere, which has allowed me to capture many scenes that I would have missed in my old SLR days when I had to lug around a large camera body and several heavy lenses. Putting such a compact camera in a full size camera bag would negate the camera’s convenient size.
  • Filter Holder – I had a need for some sort of easy-to-use filter holder that will hold up to 3 filters. (The main filters I use on my 5700 are a polarizer, 4x neutral density, and a split gradient neutral density.)
  • Any Color Except Black – Because of all my summer hiking, and my experience with the black Nikon case, it was clear that a black camera bag was out of the question. Finding a non-black case was actually much harder than I thought it would be.

When I began my search for a new camera bag it immediately became apparent that the unusual size of the 5700 presented a problem. Just about all of the cases fell into 2 categories – extremely small cases for small point-and-shoot digitals, or large cases similar to the ungainly beasts designed for SLRs. It took quite a bit of searching to finally find the Tamrac bag that I finally decided to purchase.


The Nikon 5700 fits comfortably inside the Tamrac
bag with just the right amount of room to spare.

The Tamrac TEK Digital (also known as the Model 5696) has plenty of convenient pouches to hold extra memory cards, batteries, cleaning supplies, and my filter adapter. Additionally, the case sells for only $20! The only thing that it didn’t seem to have was some sort of easy-to-access method of storing filters. However, after a bit of searching I came up with a great solution, the Tamrac MX-S5363 SAS Compact Filter Case. For a mere $11.50 this filter case provides a solution that is actually superior to having a filter holder built into my main camera case.


Tamrac MX-S5363 SAS Compact Filter Case
3 nicely padded pouches for filters.

Tamrac makes a series of pouches as part of their “Strap Accessory System” (SAS). Basically, these pouches are designed to slip onto straps (shoulder or belt) so that you can custom design your own collection of pouches to match your equipment needs. One of these pouches, the MX-S5363, is a compact filter case deigned to hold 3 filters. Unlike many of the filter holders that I researched, this case is extremely compact and the filters simply slide into 3 nicely padded pockets. However, the big advantage of this case is that its outside dimensions allow it to fit perfectly into the bottom of my Tamrac camera bag! Since the filters are nicely padded, my 5700 can sit nicely on top of the filter case and still have plenty of room to spare in the camera bag.

An additional bonus is that this filter case can also be carried in larger pant pockets (like the side pockets on cargo shorts/pants). Therefore, if I’m just going on a short walk with my 5700 around my neck, I can bring along all of my filters in my pocket. It’s a great system that really works well for me!


My typical gear on a photo hike. There's room to spare for additional items if needed.

Note: Like all the photo gear that I mention on my website, I have no connection with this company. I am just a very satisfied user of some of their products.

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