Camera bags for the FZ300
The reversible lens hood
Before dealing with bags we have to comment on a crucial accessory included with the camera: the small but practical FZ300 lens hood. Unlike older cameras where you either leave it inserted (and need a longer bag) or store it away (and need space for it in the bag), this one can be inserted reversed, fitting just outside the lens external barrel and taking virtually no space inside the bag. Therefore it makes sense to search for two different bags: one for open-air and/or sunlight pictures, when you carry the FZ300 with the hood inserted, and a slightly smaller bag for other pictures where you do not need the hood and store it either reversed or removed.
Attention! (1) With the hood reversed, this camera is fully functional, but the accuracy of the Auto Focus lamp can be impaired. (2) If you shut down the camera and you have the tip of a finger near to the lens barrel, the hood reversed over the retracting lens will trap your finger: you may even damage your camera! (3) Shut down the camera to insert/remove the hood. If the camera is ON you should refrain from touching the lens: if it is moving even slightly (for example if it is auto re-focusing or you inadvertently touched a zoom lever) you will get an error message and have to restart the camera anyway.
General considerations
It is unfortunate that no bag for this camera is made by Panasonic. (Years ago, for the FZ35-38, Panasonic produced a very light bag that fitted the camera like a glove, with two clever small inside pockets for a spare battery and memory card). There is no lack of good quality bags in the market, but unfortunately many that are reported to fit this camera fail to do so: this can be checked online, where some bags said to be compatible cannot possibly be so on account of their internal dimensions. I have tested more than 20 bags in well-furnished shops and eventually bought a few.
I was looking for a “toploading” bag, one where you open a top cover and insert the camera lens facing down. The camera bag for a compact camera should have a good fit: if you can insert a finger along the camera then the bag is too large. Conversely, if you need to press hard on the camera to insert it, the bag is too small. Also, my search looks specifically for bags that have a few pockets for spares such as battery, memory card, a small lens brush and a couple of filters. I found no fitting bags made by Isy and Hama and only a few fitting ones made by Tamrac, Manfrotto, Case Logic and LowePro. My recommended models listed below are meant for three alternatives: (1) hood inserted, (2) hood reversed or removed and (3) hood removed and the Metz 44 AF-2 flash inside the bag. Please note that the pictures are not to the same scale.
Bags for the FZ300 with hood inserted
Tamrac: The Jazz Zoom 20 Black is too large. The 5513 Adventure Zoom 3 may be fine but is not sold in Europe. The 5682 Digital Zoom 2 (which I bought many years ago for another camera but eventually never used, and is still available) is a bit heavy (305 gr empty) due to its 1/2in-thick padding, but the fit is almost perfect, perhaps slightly “tight”. It has a small inside pocket for accessories and a large outside pocket in the front. This is my "heavy duty" recommendation for USA users: at present is not available in Europe.
Manfrotto: The Manfrotto SKU MB SH-1BB is surely too small, and the MB MA-H-S is too large. Both the MB NX-H-IBU and MB NX-H-IGY looked fine looking at their internal size. In the picture below right (from Manfrotto) the latter is shown with a Sony A7 camera, which is just 5mm taller than the FZ300, while the latter is just 6mm wider. Once I bought this bag I found that, as expected, the fit with hood inserted is perfect: at 233 gr (empty) this bag is also significantly lighter than the Tamrac 5682. Please note that, while in many bags the upper flap opens "against" the user, in this one the flap opens "away" from the user. Like most other bags (e.g. the Case Logic ones dealt with below) this one has three pockets for accessories: one inside and two outside. This model is my "heavy-duty" recommendation for European users.
CaseLogic: I find the following models decidedly either too large or too small: CHC-101, CPL-103, DCB-305/306K. DSM-101, FLXH-100, KDM-101/102, MDH-101, MDM-101, SLDC-203, SLRC-(all) and TBC-(all). Models that should be a good match based on CaseLogic internal dimensions (although I have not tested them) are the SRLC 200 and the DCB-304: a user has reported an excellent fit of the latter with the Panasonic FZ200 camera, which however is smaller (8mm less width, 12mm less length). Eventually in a travel stop at London Heathrow Airport I found and bought the DCB-314. As in the Manfrotto above, the flap opens away from the user and is also slanted: the FZ300 will only fit (with the hood in place) if you insert the camera with the eyepiece towards you. The fit is then perfect, even more so if you modify the bag by removing the internal yellow divider. The best place to store a spare battery is the left outside pocket. It is surprising to see how such a large camera, with its lens hood inserted, fits into such a small bag, possibly also the best-looking one for the FZ300. At 156 gr (empty), this is my recommendation as a lightweight bag for the camera with the hood inserted.
Bags for the FZ300 with hood reversed/removed
CaseLogic: Compared with the DCB-314 discussed above, the Wasedo WMMB-100 is even smaller and lighter. It is slightly too deep for the FZ300 with hood reversed or removed, and I fixed this by inserting a 1/2 in. styrofoam filling at the bottom, undercutting it to store the spare battery there, precisely below the camera's right-hand grip. The weight of this case (empty) including this filling is 128 gr. This is possibly the best bag for the camera with the hood either reversed or removed.
Bags for the FZ300 with hood removed plus the Metz 44 AF-2 flash
If we put together over a table the camera without the lens hood and, separated by a cloth, the Metz 44 flash (with the lamp against the camera's hand grip) we get an almost perfect rectangular shape:
Unfortunately, of the bags reviewed above, none can be used in this way: quite obviously, they are all too small.
Having tried in shops more than a dozen bags that “looked” right from the outside, the best fit was the Hama Astana 110 Colt, but it still is not deep enough to zip it closed comfortably, and the next Hama model, the Astana 130 Colt, is 5.5 cm (2 in.) deeper, leaving almost 4 cm (more than one inch) of empty space on top. A week later I was with my wife sipping a “Spritz” cocktail in the Borgo Stretto in Pisa when, incredibly, about 40 ft across the road, I saw it in a shop window! I run there with the camera and "lo and behold!", this was exactly what I was looking for.
The Lowepro Adventura SH 140 II is just about 1 cm (1/2 in.) too wide: this is easy to resolve with the included Velcro padding. You also have to insert a rubber sheet between the flash (stored at the bottom) and the camera (stored above the flash, always with the lens pointing downwards).