Hazard 4 Jelly Roll Review: Best MOLLE Lens Pouch?

I needed a MOLLE storage solution for my Nikon lenses that could work with my backpack, and after some searching all roads led me to the Hazard 4 Jelly Roll pouch, the question is was it the right choice?

If there’s one thing I take really seriously aside from my photography, it’s my gear. First off, I prefer not to travel with the usual camera bags that you can pick up at your local camera shop, not only because when you see somebody with a camera bag it screams “HEY! THERE’S EXPENSIVE CAMERA GEAR IN HERE!!”, however I also want functionality and modular capabilities so I can switch up my configuration to not only my liking, but to my specific needs for whatever the activity. So with those specific things I look for in a camera bag I find that tactical packs are the best solution for my needs, not to mention the fact that good quality ones are meant to withstand a beating on the battlefield so it should stand up to my abuse pretty well.

I’ll take the time to review my 5.11 Tactical RUSH 12 (My EDC. which means Every Day Carry, not the EDC music festival. haha ;P) and RUSH 24 packs in the future, but for now I’ll start this series with my latest addition, the Hazard 4 Jelly Roll.

First Impressions:

Right out of the box as soon as I picked up the pouch I knew this was a solid product. The outer shell of the Jelly Roll is made of 100% Cordura, the strapping and zippers are all solid and feel very very secure. It’s wrapped in MOLLE webbing for even more add ons and has a band of Velcro on the top so you can affix any nametapes or patches you might have.

When you zip open the top you’ll find a little pouch on the inside of the lid which might be great to store your lens/body caps or other miscellaneous knick knacks, it’s nice and soft so you don’t need to worry about scratching filters without cases. There is a little padded divider that you can remove completely or use to separate two lenses if you choose to pack a couple in there or to prevent whatever item you have in there from sliding around. Now I’m going to be really straight up with you, Hazard4 didn’t come close to skimping on the padding in this case. I can easily be rest assured that when I have my glass in there it’s going to be safe from all kinds of bumps and bruises, and when you’re buying good glass it isn’t cheap, so that piece of mind is well appreciated.

In short, just based on my first 2 minutes with this case I knew felt way more comfortable putting a $2000 piece of equipment into this case over other similar style pouches I’d come across such as the one by Rothco at my local army surplus shop. This pouch just feels substantial, you know you can trust it isn’t going to fail*. (*knock on wood, I just got it 2 days ago so I’d rather not jinx myself 😉 ). I also grabbed one of the grey Arabic/English Velcro Press Pass, because you can never have enough Velcro patches.

Sizing:
I was looking for something to be able to switch between my Nikon 16-35mm and 24-70mm lenses rather easily and not have to go into my main compartment, the Jelly Roll fits both lenses snugly, there’s no shifting around once they are in there. However if you’re bringing your lens hood with you then you’ll want to remove them first, insert the lens into the Jelly Roll, and then flip the hood around and pop it on top. I found this out after sliding in my 24-70 with the hood on (glass down) and it went in effortlessly, pulling it out however wasn’t easy as I had mentioned the case is padded very well. I ended up just untwisting the lense and fiddled with the hood to get it loose, I suggest the hood off technique as I had mentioned above.

After 1 month of use:

So almost all reviews are of just the brand new product, but what about the performance after putting the gear through some wear and tear? Well I wrote the “Initial Impressions” section of the review about a month ago, then strapped it to my 5.11 Rush 24 and took it out on the town! I treated the pouch with a water repellent for that added layer of protection as it hasn’t been overly rainy this year in Toronto, but it has certainly had some serious downpours so I didn’t want to get caught off guard. The pouch has held up flawlessly, it’s taken a few hits and drops off of chairs and it’s held up and protected my gear on all occasions, I have also used it to hold a water bottle and it’s done a great job and keeping it cool and insulated.

My only suggestion if the Hazard 4 powers that be are seeing this is perhaps changing the zipper to a heavy duty interlocking lockable one like in this.

A lockable zipper for the v.2.0 would be cool.

Really though that would just be icing on the cake as the Jelly Roll tube has been perfect so far, I would even get a second one.

Fits my 5.11 RUSH pack perfectly

Final Verdict:

5 out of 5 stars. With the change in the USD and CAD exchange rates recently it’s become a tad more expensive for us Canadians however it’s still a piece of gear I would highly suggest if you have a compatible pack. I found the best place to order it from was Amazon, I tried to buy from the GearBunker shop on the Hazard 4 page however the shipping was going to cost almost as much as the pouch itself, Amazon cost me a couple dollars and I had it shipped to me within a week. I’ve checked out some of the other products Hazard 4 offers and would be interested in getting my hands on them in the future, if I ever do, I’ll be more than happy to share a review.

Next up on my reviews I’ll take a look at the 5.11 Tactical RUSH series packs. I own two, let me tell you what I think of them.