Digital cameras don’t work so well with a dead battery. Here’s a rundown of how to charge the battery for your Nikon D3500 DSLR camera.
Quick info
How to charge Nikon D3500 batteries
On many digital cameras, you can charge the battery while it’s still in the camera. You just connect the camera to a power source with the USB cable. But you can’t do that with the Nikon D3500. The USB connection on a D3500 is only for data transfer — it doesn’t transmit any power. So you can’t use it to charge the battery in the camera.
Instead, you have to take the battery out of the camera, put it into an external charger, and then connect that charger to a power source.
The model of the charger for the D3500’s batteries is the MH-24. It’s an AC charger, which means it plugs into a wall outlet. It’s also an auto-switching outlet. So long as you have the correct cable or plug (or are using a standard travel adapter), it will automatically handle both 110 or 240-volt power sources.
You can also get aftermarket versions from other manufacturers. I’ve found some of these aftermarket brands to be very good, but it’s also possible to come across ones from no-name brands that also work well.
The USB connection on a D3500 is only for data transfer — it doesn’t transmit any power. So you can’t use it to charge the battery in the camera.
There are two other benefits with aftermarket versions. For one, they’re often less expensive than the original. For another, they often offer features not available in the Nikon original. Some, for instance, can charge multiple batteries at once. Others can charge from a USB power source — something that can be very handy when you’re looking for a more portable option, such as when traveling, and want to be able to use a car charger or a USB power brick.
Spare batteries for the Nikon D3500
The battery for the Nikon D3500 is model number EN-EL14a. It’s a lithium-ion battery pack rated at 7.2 V / 1230mAh / 8.9Wh.
If you’re looking to get a spare battery or replace one that’s not performing anymore (they do wear out after a lot of use), the safest option is to go with the Nikon-branded version. They’re usually more expensive, but it gives more assurance that it is — and will remain — compatible.
What I mean by that second part — that it will remain — is that it is a technical possibility for camera manufacturers to issue a firmware update that restricts the camera to using only batteries produced by the manufacturer, so that it stops working with batteries made by other manufacturers. It might be because of some compatibility issue — camera manufacturers understandably aren’t enthusiastic about spending support resources on dealing with problems caused by accessories produced by other manufacturers. It’s rare that a camera manufacturer would go to those lengths, but it has happened (we’re looking at you, GoPro).
All that said, I’ve also had very good experiences with some of the better-known aftermarket manufacturers. Watson, Wasabi Power, and Smatree are good examples.
I’ve used many batteries for many cameras produced by those manufacturers and found them to be basically the same as the originals. And they’re often much less expensive. So long as you use them with your eyes open to the potential downsides, they can be a very good option.
All of them will reference the original Nikon model number and market themselves as EN-EL14a replacement batteries. Some will have slightly different capacity ratings, but it rarely makes much difference in real-world shooting.
