The DP Merrill 3 and the Fuji X100s seem, at a glance, to be as different as night and day. And in many ways they are. This is what makes them such a nice combination to shoot with.

The Merrill is not fun to use. Its rear screen is not particularly good. It operates slowly. The autofocus is, at best and in perfect conditions, still not very quick (although it's accurate, and the magnified MF is ok too). It takes ages to write a file to card. The battery life is terrible. However, the files it gives you more than make up for these shortcomings: at ISO 100 and 200, the files are simply the best I've ever seen from any camera that I've used, and I've only seen comparable detail from medium format digital. I shoot it in RAW exclusively because it just seems wrong to use that sensor and that lens to produce JPEGS. This takes a lot of time in post processing, but it's worth it in the end.

The Fuji, on the other hand, has the "usability factor" to such an extent I worry that the Monopolies Commission might get called in. The AF is superb now (even in very dark circumstances), manual is great, writing to card is almost instant. The battery life is not amazing, but two batteries will almost certainly get you through a day of shooting. The high ISO is excellent: 3200 is fine with the right exposure, and you can go higher still if you really need to but given that you can hand hold the thing at very low speeds - I'm talking slower than 1/focal length - it is unusual to have to go that high. I shoot it in JPEG only because the JPEGs it produces are exceptional. If you get the shot right in-camera, there's very little post processing involved.

They have their respective strengths, then. Here's a roundup of recent shots with both of them.

The first one is from the Fuji, and it's a trick I learned from reading David Hobby ("Strobist")'s article on the camera. It involves setting the ISO to the lowest possible setting (100), engaging the built-in ND filter, setting the shutter speed to 1000 and using the flash...in bright sunlight. I don't understand the technicalities of this, as I almost never use flash (I intend to learn, though), but I like the outcome:

More from the Fuji...pretty nice macro mode as well.

It has some really nice black and white options as well.

Time for some Sigma shots... a slightly abstract picture to start with.

This large black butterfly obligingly stayed still long enough for the Sigma to get a lock on it.

Goats always look so chilled out.

This guy (girl?) wasn't going anywhere fast, so I could take my time with him (her?)

Back to Fuji for a few shots...

Sigma:

Last word goes to the Fuji, whose low light performance reminded me how much I'd missed shooting after the sun goes down (it's possible with the Merrill, and I've done it, but you can't really do it on the fly. You have to stabilise it somewhere. Whereas the Fuji is so good in this kind of situation that it really encourages you to keep shooting to see how dark a scene you can get away with).

Lastly, a night shot in colour (I just prefer the black and white modes at night for some reason: while the Fuji has great colour, as you would imagine given their film pedigree, night just seems to suit black and white for the most part).

Thanks for looking: I have a backlog of shots from these two cameras, so part 2 of this entry will follow, probably next weekend.