CAMERAS
90 MARCH2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE385
PROPPINGUPTHEfoot ofNikon’sDSLR
offerings,the D 3500 isthe modelNikonhopes
will tempt newcomersawayfromthe current
crop of superb mirrorless cameras.
It replaces the two-year-old D3400 (Shopper
352), andwhile it’s only hadasmall weight
reduction,415g is still impressive.The D3500
is only124mm wide,soit’snot much different
in thehand to many mirrorless cameras.The
rubber coveronthe grip isn’t exactly the last
word in luxury,but at the very leastthisisn’t a
camera that willslip out of your hands.
WIDEAWAKE
Comparedtomany DSLRs, the screen–a3in,
921K-pixel affair that neither tilts nor pivots
–isfrill-free. It’s nottouch-sensitive,either,
but is bright, clear and makes easy workof
getting your settings figured out. Our only
bugbear is that there’s no sensor to tell the
screen to shut off when you lift up the camera;
the screenturns off when youhalf pressthe
shutter button, but is otherwise on allthe time.
Battery life,onthe other hand, is a
highlight. Fully charged, it will fire 1,500
exposures; around 300 morethan the D3400.
Videographersshouldnotethe lackofa
mic input –even at this price, it doesn’t seem
unreasonable to expect one –but otherwise,
the D3500 is averyusablecamera.The buttons
are alittle clicky buteasy to hit, and the
controldial on the topfeelspositive,soyou’ll
be abletouse it even when wearinggloves.
Then again, we’d have liked to seea
Function button as well. Itsomission leaves
no direct waytoaccess ISOsettings, so you’ll
have to either dig them outthrough the
menu or relyonthe autoISO mode.
Still, theD3500 can be agood camerafor
thoselooking to up theirgame, or progress
from smartphone photography to something
alittle more advanced. TheGuide setting on
the modedial, forexample,isauseful way to
figure outhow the visual effect youwant,
such as ablurred background, relates to whhhich
settings. It’sareallyuseful, integrated way of
telling the camera roughly whatyou’re
doing and havingitmake an educated
guessastowhat the settings should be.
Downloading images from the
camera to asmartphone is useful for
thosewho wanttobeable to share
DSLR imagesdirectlyfromtheir smart
device,although we found transferring
full-size imagestookabsolutely forever.
Attempting to copyafull-size,top-
quality,11.7MBJPEGtested our
commitment and we stopped the timer
at three minuteswith thetransfer
NIKON D3500
★★★★★
£299•From http://www.wexphotovideo.com
VERDICT
AsuperbbudgetDSLRthat’sidealforbeginners,
evenifit’snotahugeimprovementontheD3400
incomplete. Taking the app’s suggestion to
downsize theimage to twomegapixels before
transferring producedamore manageable
transfer time of 16 seconds.
At least image quality is impeccable,and
right up there with the Canon EOS M200.
Keep the ISO undercontrol and the camera’s
image qualityisonly limitedbythe lens you
attach. Colourswerealwaysaccurate and,
naturally,you can alwaysopt to shoot Raw
files to gouge the maximum from your files
in post-production. Notably,the D3500’s
APS-C sensor weighs in with24.8 megapixels,
which is prettymuchthe mostyou’ll get on
an APS-C cameraofany price.
LIGHTHEADED
ISO performance is very good.The range
fromISO 100-800produced test images that
weremore or lessindistinguishable from
each other,and noise at ISO 1600 was pretty
nicelycontrolled –certainlywell enoughto
expect good qualityprints. BeyondISO 1600
things inevitably gotmuddier, with ISO 6400
probablyyybeingggtheusable maximum.
One final areainwhich theD3500 elevaaates
itself above its competition is its5fps burssst
mmmooodddeee.TTThhhiiisssmmmiiiggghhhtttnnnoootttbbbeeeeeennnooouuuggghhhtttooocccooovvveeerrraaa
professionalsportingevent, but forportraits
and events it’s fine. The buffer is limited: in
JPEG mode we foundthe burst mode was
good for15images, followed by afairly
lengthydigestionprocess. In Rawmodewe
couldonlyshoot eight framescontinuously
before the camera paused to process.
The main reason to be disappointed with
the lackofanaudio-in jack is because the
D3500isavery competentvideo camera too.
There’sagoodrange of options formid-range
video makers, with the D3500 offering 1080p
in 60, 50, 30,25and 24fps.You don’t get 4K
andyou don’t gethighenough frame ratesto
shoot slow motion, but forgeneral vlogging
duties the options easily suffice.
Usability forbeginners is straightforward:
point the camera at asubject, press the red
button and the camera does therest.Ifyou
want more control over your footage –shutter
and aperture,for example –you need to enable
the Manual moviesettings. This allows youto
control exposurewhenshooting movies but,
annoyingly,prevents youfromchanging the
aperture setting in live view mode.
ROOKIE MOVE
It’s aaashame, because video quality is excellent,
and we like the range of frame-rate options,
butttwithout an easyway to manage
eeexposuresorincoming audio,the D3500’s
appeal to videographersislimited despite
its excellent image quality.
If you alreadyown the D3400,this is
not aworthwhile upgrade.Indeed, it’s
hard to name manyDSLRs from which
this would be asignificant step up.
However,withimage quality that does
Nikon’sbrand justice, an affordableprice
and best-in-class battery life, theD3500
is nonetheless agreat place for
photographynewcomers to start.
