Nikon’s Arcrest II Gold Filters Look Incredible but Are Japan-Only For Now

Way back in 2017, Nikon expanded from lenses into lens accessories with the launch of the Arcrest line pro-level filters. It recently announced a new Gold Edition set that adds Nikon’s iconic gold ring to any of its lenses.

The Arcrest II Protection Filters (Gold Edition) are high-performance protective filters with an anti-static coating that use ultra-low reflection coating to simultaneously protect the glass of a lens front element while also maintaining the original image quality. One major issue with filters is that while they may protect or even offer some other benefits (like polarization or neutral density), some aren’t particularly high quality and degrade the quality the lens would otherwise produce.

Nikon says that the Arcrest II line builds on the original series of Nikon filters using the company’s proprietary technology of multi-layer AR coating called “Zero One AR Coat” with an ultra-low reflectance rate close to the single-sided design value of approximately 0.1% in the visible light range of 420nm to 680nm.

“Generally, the filter glass is mounted to the filter frame with a spring or metal ring. However, the previous method applied stress to the glass surface, which caused distortion on the glass surface,” Nikon says.

“Nikon’s new mounting technology, the ‘Flat Plane System,’ mounts the glass by inserting a special elastomer between the glass and the frame. This significantly reduces the stress on the glass and minimizes distortion caused by the mount. In addition, the elastomer can withstand high and low temperatures, so the glass retention strength does not decrease even in extremely hot or cold environments. The glass retention strength of the filter frame is designed to clear a 400G impact resistance test and is less likely to cause the glass to fall off or the filter frame to disassemble.”

In short, Nikon builds these filters to the same standard as its optical glass, resulting in what it positions as a protective filter with basically no downsides.

This new Gold Edition doesn’t change anything about the quality of the filter but it does make the lenses it mounts to much better to look at. Just like Nikon’s recently announced 28-135mm f/4 Power Zoom, yellow can be added to any of the company’s previous lenses as long as they have the proper filter size. The gold isn’t located in the same spot (the 28-135mm f/4 Power Zoom has a gold ring at the mount point) but it is still a nice touch.

Nikon has not typically embraced its gold in its Z-series mirrorless products so for those who like their cameras to have a bit of style and character, the announcement of these new Gold Filters and the design of the 28-135mm f/4 Power Zoom is encouraging.

Unfortunately, it’s not clear if these filters will be coming to North America. They are slated for release in “late December 2024” in Japan. PetaPixel reached out to Nikon for any indication of their availability outside of Japan but the company did not respond.

There is hope, however. The rest of Nikon’s Arcrest II filters are available in the United States, so the company may expand the availability of the gold filters at a later date.

For now, Japanese photographers can pick up the Arcrest II Protection Filter (Gold Edition) in 77mm, 82mm, or 92mm sizes for 16,500 (about $107), 19,800 (about $129), and 33,000 yen (about $214), respectively.

Image credits: Nikon