I am a total newb, and I have never used anything else, but yes, I have been pleased. If you do your homework and go into the purchase very cognizant of its small sensor, single lens, and low light limitations, you probably won't be disappointed. Out of the box it shoots pretty flat, so if you don't want to take advantage of that extra leeway in post, you can load an SD with just about any saved presets you want to bake in the look you desire. Some complain about the clunky menu, but since I have never had anything that gave me this much control before, I'm just happy to be able to have so much control, even if I have to go through a few menus to get it all. Plus you can reprogram the buttons a little if there are other things you'd rather have at your fingertips. I like the built-in zebra and peeking, too. If you want to do any hokey night-vision "ghost-hunting" stuff, that is really fun, too, with near-broadcast-quality results. To get the slightly shallow dof shown in those other videos you have to be far away and zoom all the way in. I know some folks have had the XF300s and downsized to the 100s just to be able to do more run-n-gun guerilla and documentary shooting.