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Although the Nikon D3500 is versatile and suitable for shooting wide-angle, normal, and telephoto perspectives, the quality of the photos mainly depends on the lens you use. The best lenses for Nikon D3500 are versatile, and you can use them in various lighting conditions.
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The best lenses for Nikon D3500 come with advanced autofocus systems that allow you to capture sharp images without manual focus hassles. The following lenses come with bright apertures that allow you to capture photos with a pleasing bokeh quality.
If you're taking real estate interior photos in bad lighting, you will need a lens with a wide maximum aperture, such as the Nikon 50mm f/1.8. The f/1.8 bright aperture allows enough light to reach the camera sensor and capture bright photos in poor lighting.
The wide aperture also allows you to blur the background and produce beautiful bokeh quality using selective focus techniques, making the lens suitable for portraits.
Considering that the lens has a fixed focal length of 50mm, it attains an equivalent focal length of 75mm when you pair it with a Nikon D3500 camera with a crop factor effect of 1.5x, making it great for shooting portraits.
However, unlike the other lenses on my list, the fixed focal length means you can't zoom in on distant subjects, and you will need to move closer to the subject manually. This lens has a rubber gasket around the mount, sealing off weather elements.
This design makes the lens suitable for trying weather conditions such as dusty environments. With a weight of 0.41 pounds, this lens is the most lightweight on my list, allowing you to shoot handheld without exhaustion.
If you want to capture detailed photos of the environment surrounding the real estate property, consider going for a telephoto lens such as the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3. When you mount this lens to the Nikon D3500 camera with a crop factor of 1.5x, it gives you an equivalent focal length of 225-900mm.
Unlike the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, this gives you an extensive zoom range that you can use to capture the entire surrounding without walking around. This lens features a zoom lock mechanism which allows you to lock your preferred focal length to prevent unwanted or accidental zooming.
The lens has a hypersonic motor that allows you to achieve a smooth and fast focus. However, the manual focus ring is flimsy and choppy and tends to jump and jerk when focusing.
It is challenging to manually focus the lens when the autofocus is ineffective, like in poor lighting.
Also, with the maximum wide aperture of f/5 when using shorter focal lengths and a maximum wide aperture of f/6.3 when using longer focal lengths, the lens's performance in low light is significantly poor compared to the Nikon 50mm f/1.8.
The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 is one of the most versatile lenses you can use to shoot in varying lighting conditions. Unlike the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3, this lens maintains a constant maximum aperture of f/2.8 throughout the zoom range, allowing you to take a consistent image quality.
When paired with the D3500, it gives an equivalent focal length of 36-105mm. Combining this with the bright aperture makes the lens suitable for capturing interior photos in bad lighting and wide-angle exterior photos.
The lens also comes with nine aperture blades that help create a pleasing background blur when using selective focus techniques, making it suitable for shooting close-ups and portraits.
The lens comes with weather sealing and fluorine coatings that help to protect the optical elements from moisture and dust, making it great for use in trying environments.
With a weight of 3.7 pounds, this lens is heavy and bulky and might exhaust you if shooting handheld. Unlike the Nikon 50mm f/1.8, this lens comes with an image stabilization system that helps to minimize camera vibrations and shakes when shooting without a tripod.
Although the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 is a budget lens, it comes with a flexible zoom range of 70-300mm. This flexible zoom allows you to capture the details of the real estate property, such as the lawn, without stepping on it.
This lens has a super integrated coating that ensures you can take photos in backlit interiors with minimal flare and ghosting.
However, the maximum wide aperture of f/4.5 when using short focal lengths and f/5.6 when using longer focal lengths might not allow sufficient light to enter to capture bright photos when shooting in badly lit interiors.
Like the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, this lens comes with a vibration reduction system that helps to reduce the camera vibration when shooting without a tripod. Although it's a zoom lens, it weighs 1.5 pounds, making it the second most lightweight lens on my list.
This makes it a good walk-around lens, as you can shoot handheld for a long time without exhaustion.
The versatility of the Nikon D3500 and the quality of the photos it can capture depends on the quality of the lens you pair it with. The following features can help you choose a lens that can suit real estate interior and exterior
In addition, the following table further highlights the key features and specifications you should consider when choosing a lens to pair with the Nikon D3500.
| Lenses | Weight (Pounds) | Image Stabilization | Type |
| Nikon 50mm f/1.8 | 0.41 | No | Prime lens |
| Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 | 4.25 | Yes | Zoom lens |
| Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 | 3.7 | Yes | Zoom lens |
| Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 | 1.5 | Yes | Zoom lens |
Focal length is simply the distance between the sensor of the camera and the center of the lens. Usually, camera lenses are named by their focal length, usually indicated in millimeters on the barrel. The focal length of a lens controls the angle of view.
In simpler terms, the focal length controls how much of a scene the lens can capture at a given time. A short focal length makes the camera capture a broader scene, while a longer one captures a narrower scene.
Keeping in mind that the camera has to fill the frame with the scene even when using shorter focal lengths, longer focal lengths create a magnification effect. As a result, if you want a lens that can fill the frame with distant subjects, consider going for a telephoto lens such as the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3.
The aperture is the opening that allows light through the lens to reach the camera sensor. In most cases, the aperture is variable, and there are the narrowest and widest settings you can achieve in a given lens. The aperture is specified as a fraction of the focal length, such as f/2.8.
Considering that the aperture controls the amount of light, it is a member of the exposure triangle. Since this is a fraction, a lens with a wide aperture will have a smaller denominator. For instance, the aperture of f/2.8 is wider than that of f/3.5.
As a result, a lens with a wide maximum aperture, such as the Nikon 50mm f/1.8, can capture brighter photos in low-light conditions than a lens with a narrower maximum wide aperture, such as the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6.
Human hands tend to make some tiny shakes, and if you're shooting handheld, there are chances of image blurring or the video becoming unsteady. The image stabilization system is a mechanism that helps to compensate for unexpected camera vibrations and movements.
In most cases, camera shakes are common in zoom lenses like Nikon, especially when using longer focal lengths. Typically, this is because the magnification effect of a zoom lens also magnifies the camera movements and vibrations, especially when zoomed in.
If you are planning to shoot distant subjects handheld, consider going for a zoom lens that features an image stabilization system such as the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6.
Usually, camera lenses come with a fixed focal length or a variable focal length. Lenses with a variable angle of view allow you to adjust the magnification effect. However, the extent to which you adjust depends on the focal range of the lens.
Keeping in mind that the Nikon D3500 just like the Nikon D5600 is a crop-factor camera, the focal length of the lenses changes to an equivalent of 1.5x. That means if the lens has a focal length of 24-70mm, it changes to an equivalent of 36-105mm.
As you choose the lens, consider the subject you are shooting, the subject distance, and your desired angle of view. For instance, if you want to capture wide-angle photos of the property exteriors, you can use the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens to get a wide-angle field of view at 36mm.
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For instance, the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 comes with a rubber gasket around the mount that can help prevent dust from entering. On the other hand, a lens such as the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 comes with complete weather sealing, including fluorine coating to protect the optical elements.
Different camera lenses take images of varying qualities depending on the construction quality, the type of lens, and the number of elements in the optical design.
Usually, lenses with more aspherical and low dispersion elements tend to reduce flare, ghosting, and surface reflections, allowing you to capture clear and accurate colors even when shooting in harsh lighting.
However, the moving parts in a lens can cause abnormalities. Usually, the more parts, the more abnormalities. As a result, prime lenses such as the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 tend to capture sharper and higher quality images due to the minimal lens components and moving parts that can cause distortions.
The Nikon D3500 can't be considered outdated as it still supports many lenses. However, in 2021, Nikon announced that the production of the Nikon D3500 would be discontinued. Generally, this is because the company is shifting its attention from DSLRs to focusing on manufacturing mirrorless cameras.
It's advisable to pair the Nikon D3500 with a compatible Nikon lens. In most cases, Nikon lenses have a better optical quality and durable physical design than their third-party counterparts. However, the right lens primarily depends on the specifications you want and not the brand.
Generally, the best lenses for Nikon D3500 depend on the subject and shooting conditions. For instance, a prime lens with a bright aperture is ideal for taking portraits and interior photos, while a zoom lens with a wide-angle focal length is suitable for taking exterior photos.
