Photography Life

PL provides various digital photography news, reviews, articles, tips, tutorials and guides to photographers of all levels

  • Lens Reviews
  • Camera Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • Compare Cameras
  • Forum
    • Sign Up
    • Login
  • About
  • Search
Home โ†’ Reviews โ†’ Cameras and Lenses โ†’ Nikon D3500 Review

Nikon D3500 Review

By Spencer Cox 33 Comments
Last Updated On February 11, 2020

«»

Autofocus Performance

One of the biggest flaws with the Nikon D3500’s specifications is the old 11-point autofocus system that it uses. This is quite small relative to the 39-point system on the Nikon D5600, let alone some mirrorless cameras targeted at a similar audience which may have upwards of 100 focus points.

Yet, in practice, I was surprisingly impressed by the accuracy and speed of the D3500’s supposedly outdated system.

This monkey is doing the 'speak no evil' pose in Zhangjiajie, China. Taken with the Nikon D3500 DSLR.
Speak no evil.
NIKON D3500 + 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 105mm, ISO 400, 1/160, f/5.6

I’ve tested the D3500’s 11-point focus system against that of all its competitors, including the system found on the Nikon D5600, Canon Rebel SL3, and Canon Rebel T7i. The D3500 actually held up surprisingly well.

The biggest issue is that 11 autofocus points can only cover so much of the scene. If your subject is between autofocus points or outside their boundary, there’s not much you can do about it (at least in the viewfinder; live view has thousands of autofocus points, allowing you to place the focus sensor essentially wherever you want in the frame).

Nikon's 11-point autofocus system is found on the Nikon D3500 when taking pictures through the viewfinder.
The 11-point autofocus system found on the Nikon D3500 through the viewfinder

Viewfinder autofocus is far quicker than live view autofocus, so it is an issue only to have 11 points available. But the speed and accuracy of these points is much higher than you may expect given the D3500’s “entry level” designation.

Here is a set of photos to illustrate that the D3500’s 11-point system can work quite well for focusing on fast-moving subjects. While I was out testing autofocus, this duck swooped in front of me unexpectedly. But, impressively, every image in this series is completely usable:

This photo series is a test of the 11-point autofocus system found on the Nikon D3500. Here, I took wildlife pictures and tried to track autofocus as a duck landed in the water.

And here are crops from each image (unsharpened):

These are crops from the previous photos, testing the Nikon D3500's 11-point autofocus system.

Although some of these are sharper than others – the first and sixth ones aren’t perfect – there is not a single image in this sequence which is too blurry to publish. That is especially good considering that the duck was not the same distance from my camera the entire time, so the autofocus system definitely had some work to do. (Note that the duck’s head becomes progressively smaller in each image.)

And here is how an edited version looks at web resolution – pretty impressive focus for a spur-of-the-moment shot:

This edited image from the earlier autofocus test shows an in-focus duck landing on the water.

I wouldn’t say that the D3500 has flawless autofocus, especially compared to Nikon’s 39-point, 51-point, and 153-point systems on their more advanced cameras. But for the D3500’s intended purpose, its autofocus capabilities certainly exceeded my expectations.

The next page of this review goes over image quality – one of the main reasons to purchase the Nikon D3500 in the first place:

Table of Contents

  • Overview & Specifications
  • Build Quality and Handling
  • Autofocus
  • Image Quality
  • Comparisons
  • Summary
  • User Comments
«»
Looking for even more exclusive content?

On Photography Life, you already get world-class articles with no advertising every day for free. As a Member, you'll get even more:

Silver ($5/mo)
  • Exclusive articles
  • Monthly Q&A chat
  • Early lens test results
  • "Creative Landscape Photography" eBook
Gold ($12/mo)
  • All that, PLUS:
  • Online workshops
  • Monthly photo critiques
  • Vote on our next lens reviews
 
Click Here to Join Today
 
Disclosures, Terms and Conditions and Support Options

Learn

  • Beginner Photography
  • Landscape Photography
  • Wildlife Photography
  • Portraiture
  • Post-Processing
  • Advanced Tutorials
Photography Life on Patreon

Reviews

  • Camera Reviews
  • Lens Reviews
  • Other Gear Reviews
  • Best Cameras and Lenses

Photography Tutorials

Photography Basics
Landscape Photography
Wildlife Photography
Macro Photography
Composition & Creativity
Black & White Photography
Night Sky Photography
Portrait Photography
Street Photography
Photography Videos

Unique Gift Ideas

Best Gifts for Photographers

Subscribe via Email

If you like our content, you can subscribe to our newsletter to receive weekly email updates using the link below:

Subscribe to our newsletter

Site Menu

  • About Us
  • Beginner Photography
  • Lens Database
  • Lens Index
  • Photo Spots
  • Search
  • Forum

Reviews

  • Reviews Archive
  • Camera Reviews
  • Lens Reviews
  • Other Gear Reviews

More

  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
  • Workshops
  • Support Us
  • Submit Content

Copyright © 2025 ยท Photography Life

You are going to send email to

Move Comment