In this paper, a multispectral camera equipped with a number of broad band filters arranged in a filter wheel is in focus. The different spectral transmittances of the filters allow for the capture of a number of different image separations from which the spectral color stimulus of each image pixel is estimated. A large number of thin film and low cost filters is available on the market. Here, a method selecting a limited number of filters allowing for effective spectral reconstruction is proposed. The strategy is based on the concept of selecting the filters in such a way that a linear combination of the resulting camera sensitivities approximates the principal components of a representative spectral reflectance set as well as possible. The filter selection consists of an iterative method that eliminates filters from the basic set of available filters until the desired number of filters is left. The spectral estimation is based on estimating the weights of the basis vectors from the sensor response on one hand and using Wiener inverse on the other hand. Simulated spectral estimation results based on a multispectral camera equipped with the selected filters are given as well.