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Those examples are mostly due to limitations on the part of the person grading. Using canned or popular LUTs found on the internet is going to proliferate the same look and/or mistakes. Color is a more difficult subject to master than operation of the camera itself. Professionals have been struggling with it since the arrival of the earliest raw cinema cameras. Look at early Red and Alexa and you see looks and mistakes repeated again and again, creating the false assumption in a lot of people there was a "look" for them. That lie lives on but now we have, as colorists have become more sophisticated and specific in their handling of these cameras along with improvements in color pipelines, films that share no similarities with the early footage and radically different aesthetics from the same camera.

Took my BMPC for a spin in the Salton Sea, CA.   https://vimeo.com/77268468    

I like the look too Matt. At some point, I think people should take off the pixel peeping googles and start evaluating, and crafting images based solely on aesthetic taste. It's fine to try and figure out what your tools are capable of, and whether or not they can deliver the look you're after via grading, etc. But after you've figured out if the tool is capable enough, it's time to focus on the artistic part. On pretty much all of the camera enthusiast sites, you read post after post that imply some users get stuck in eval mode... they can't see anything other than noise, corner focus, dynamic range, resolution, moire, etc. I do the same thing, but try to recognize when it's time to just start using the tools with the knowledge you've gained in the testing phase, i.e. "This camera's noise is acceptable to me up to about 3200, so I need to make lens and lighting decisions to compensate." or, "This camera tends toward a softer image, so I need to use the sharpest glass I have, and plan on a little sharpening in post when needed." etc.

I like to keep my rig as small as possible so I don't use a follow focus. I have mostly AI-s glass, which all has the same beautiful focus mechanism, so I'm happy using that. The z-finder Jr helps a lot with achieving good focus first attempt (though I'm not that practiced at it yet). One thing I'm loving is that (using the adhesive clip-on frame with the z-finder jr on the D5300) the axel on the swivel screen is quite strong and the Jr is quite light, so I can hold the camera low and against my body (much more stable) and, with the screen turned out and up, look down into the z-finder. I may post a photo of this setup as it's really working well for me. Nikon are supposedly releasing a focus assist that I might get (called NAL-1), but I haven't seen it for sale yet. FYI: I've carefully put a small piece of electrical tape over the contacts on the lens mount of my 35mm f2 AF-D, which allows me to use the aperture ring (I assume the 5300 wants you to lock your AFD lens to f22 when attached too?). This allows you to change aperture while recording. Though you loose metering.

And isn't that just great? Watch The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin before you start grading ...

Anyone care to explain the relevance of this? We've established Panasonic cameras have great resolution. The GH3 has other deficiencies though. Personally I'd choose the D5300 over the GH3. Better colours, better dynamic range, better low light, good detail with sharpening, less moire. The GH3 is more user-friendly, but the 5300 is fine to use (I actually really like the way it handles, and the large LCD is amazing with a Z-Finder). What's the best thing about the GH3? The Speed Booster, which is Nikon mount, so lens choice is going to be the same there. And low light performance still isn't going to match the 5300. In terms of latitude for grading, I'd say they are probably on par. I can tell you the 5300 is a pleasure to grade compared to my G6. DR looks better on my 5300 straight out of camera than any graded GH3 clips I've seen, as are colours, so grading isn't as important in comparison. I don't want to start a fanboy battle, but I'd like to know if resolution is really so important to you guys that you're prepared to ignore all of the other stuff?

That's film grain added in post. Please see grading details on Vimeo page. The low contrast profile of Flaat reveals noise in shadows even at low iso's, so you have to apply noise reduction to most clips. This can give the images a slightly smooth, artificial look. Film grain helps put a bit of texture back in. And personally I like the look.

Really lovely piece. Great imagery.And it's always nice to hear Jon Brion's score for Eternal Sunshine. What camera/lenses did you use?

  The lenses chapters will certainly be useful for GM1 and G6 owners. My cinematography tips too hopefully!

Dudes, let's keep this on topic. It's not a Windows versus Mac thread.