The camera’s image quality is beautiful on the low end of the ISO range and just fine up to about ISO 6400. On the higher end of the range things start to deteriorate. We didn’t love the amount of noise that we were seeing on files shot at ISO 12800. The Fujifilm X-T100 easily wins for dynamic range in our lab tests, with the Canon EOS Rebel T7/2000D in second place and the Nikon D3500 and Sony A68 very slightly behind. Verdict A range of Special Effects are available to creatively refine the look of imagery in-camera, and include Night Vision, Super Vivid, Pop, Photo Illustration, Toy Camera Effect, Miniature Effect, Selective Color, Silhouette, High Key, and Low Key. The cost of a camera seems to have a direct impact on the number of buttons on the body, so we’re disappointed if not surprised to note that the Fn button – present on the front of other Nikon cameras and normally assigned to changing the ISO – is missing here. The D3500 isn’t just Nikon’s cheapest and simplest DSLR, it’s also its lightest, weighing just 415g, body only, and that’s with the battery and a memory card. It will usually come with a lightweight 18-55mm AF-P kit lens which has a retracting mechanism to make it more portable when it’s not switched on. It’s not quite as small as a mirrorless camera, but the battery life alone makes a good case for the classic DSLR design, and the D3500 but is light, fast enough and cheap enough to make a great travel camera.

The Nikon EN-EL14a battery may be slim, but it's enough to power the D3500 for an amazing 1,550 shots. Although the experience of shooting with the camera was just okay, the images that it produced were good quality, especially when considering the low price for the kit. Conclusion Compared to many DSLRs the screen – a 3in, 921k-pixel affair that neither tilts nor pivots – is frill-free. It’s not touch-sensitive either, but is bright, clear and makes easy work of getting your settings figured out. Our only major bugbear is that there’s no sensor to tell the screen to shut off when you lift the camera up – the screen turns off when you half press the shutter button but is otherwise on all the time unless you turn it off manually. If you haven’t come to expect this from using other cameras you might not even notice, but for seasoned shooters it’s a definite hallmark of the D3500’s budget position.I advise people to buy a cheap camera with a zoom lens, to begin with, and then after having used it a while, after having looked at the EXIF of the images and see what focal lengths they have used a lot decide what to get next. Redesigned body is more compact, lighter in weight, and has nearly all of the rear controls on the right-hand side of the grip for easier one-handed control. The Nikon D3500 is a 24 Megapixel entry-level DSLR with an APS-C CMOS sensor, that is cheaper, lighter, and has a longer battery life than the D3400 that it replaced. It was designed with the new photographer in mind and features a Guide Mode that will essentially teach you how to shoot in various situations. Key specifications:

Built-in pop-up flash can be used to provide additional illumination when working in low-light conditions. A hot shoe is also available for working with an optional external flash.Modes: Auto, Incandescent, Fluorescent (7 Types), Direct Sunlight, Flash, Cloudy, Shade, Preset Manual, All Except Preset Manual with Fine-tuning

Overall the D3500 is an affordable camera that is simple enough to not be intimidating, but features enough tech that a young photographer could grow into it. The D3500 probably won’t be a 'forever' camera, but it’s a solid place to start. But if you’re looking for a small, cheap DSLR that will hold your hand while you figure out the ins and outs of photography, the D3500 – like most of Nikon’s previous entry-level DSLRs – could be well worth the cash. Nikon D3500 review: Price and competition

Reviews

The grip is reasonably deep, and even those with shovels for hands will have no problem finding a comfortable grip on the camera. The rubber cover on the grip isn’t exactly the last word in luxury but at the very least this isn’t a camera that will slip out of your hands. While we’re on build quality, neither the battery nor memory card doors feel particularly bomb-proof: it’s worth making sure they’re securely closed before stuffing the D3500 in a bag. Usability for beginners is straightforward: point the camera at a subject, doink the red button and the camera does the rest. If you want more control over your footage – shutter and aperture, for example – you need to enable the camera’s “Manual movie settings”. This allows you to control exposure when shooting movies but, annoyingly, prevents you from changing the aperture setting in live view mode.

A device with Bluetooth 4.0 or later (i.e., a device that supports Bluetooth Smart Ready/Low Energy) is required. ISO performance is very good. The range from ISO 100-800 produced test images that were more or less indistinguishable from each other, and noise at ISO 1600 was pretty nicely controlled – certainly well enough to expect good quality prints. Beyond ISO 1600 things inevitably got muddier, with ISO 6400 probably being the usable maximum. ISOs 12,800 and 25,600 are effectively party-pieces – for emergency only. It was while we were shooting our test ISO images, incidentally, that we re-discovered one of Nikon’s more annoying bugbears: set the self-timer, shoot an image, and the camera resets to burst mode after the image is taken. Seriously, like always since Fall 2018, when the D3500 came out: no DSLM does have its Battery Runtime (CIPA 1550 shots - into real life, way much more). Most importantly, buying into a future-proof system, where a more professional camera (like an X-T3) is not necessarily much larger and heavier.Some love telephoto, some love 'normal' some like wide, few of us take a lot of all kinds. Now is the time to go one step further: Fast sharp lenses cost a lot, but one a prime covering your most used focal length does not cost that much.