Last week, I finally bought a camera bag for my Nikon D80 and two lenses. I had previously been using an old videocamera bag out of my miserly tendencies.

I decided to do away with the penny-pinching nonsense and purchase a fabulous bag. It was worth it. I used it during last weekend’s trip to Portland and will find it even more useful during my upcoming five week trip to Argentina in December.

My two stipulations for buying a new camera bag?

1.)    I wanted it to have good padding and versatile, substantial storage.

2.)    I didn’t want it to be immediately recognizable as a camera bag.

Enter:

The Tamrac Express 5 Camera Bag 

(Btw-this is not a paid product endorsement. I just think this bag is the bomb-diggity.)

The best features about this bag?

1. It doesn’t scream “camera bag”. It’s messenger style and pretty darn cute.

2. Just like Goldilocks, this bag is not too small, not too big-it’s just right. If you have more than two or three lenses, a body, and some accessories, you’ll need a bigger bag. Otherwise, this is perfectly sized.

3. The foam-padded, adjustable dividers, which I moved around to make compartments for my SLR camera body, two lenses, and even my sunglasses.

4. Lots of pockets and zippers. Organized little compartments bring me a perverse amount of joy. I used this bag as my purse while traveling in Portland last weekend. My money, passport, cellphone, pens, moleskines, lipstick, toothpicks (Southern girl can’t be without), and mints stayed all snug in their respective compartments.

5. The price. Most bags I looked at averaged around US$100-150. The Tamrac was only US$50.

How about you? Do you have a favorite camera bag?

text/photo 1:Nancy Harder photo 2: Tamrac