Well, after looking at those two images once again, I am still not quite sure what folks are describing as "plastic" in the look. The lips, as Marc points out, do have a waxy look, but I think that is the lip gloss that the model is using. For the skin, it is really hard to tell what is going on, as this fairly young woman (girl) appears to have a fine powder or something smoothed over her already tiny pores, thus rendering things somewhat smooth. If you look at the eyes, lashes and eyebrows, there appears to be a fair amount of detail that is not getting as smoothed out as what is visible on the skin and lips. Same with the hair at the hairline.
I am not trying to defend the shots from this camera, and since they are JPEGs, it is entirely possible that whatever in-camera processing was applied does blur some of the finer detail. It just seems that the application is not uniform over the entire focused area, hence my questioning what folks are looking at when they say things look plastic. I would think that all areas would exhibit the same gentle smearing if it was the processing. The iris in the eyes does not seem to be so smeared/smoothed.
Basically, I agree with some comments folks have made about sacrificing gritty image detail for a smoother look. My M8 files with almost any lens carve out more pores and fine details, unless they are covered with even a bit of make-up. Just offering that until we start seeing some RAW files that we can process ourselves, puffing up or tearing down the image quality capabilities of this, or any camera, is a bit premature. If folks want to use these shots as definitive results, so be it, but I think a lot may be missed.
The CMOS sensor has never quite been able to capture the same sort of resolved detail as some CCD sensors, but we are not always sure of just how much the AA filter, reading the Bayer array, or other in-camera processing caused those differences. So, if somebody is looking for a 21MP FF DSLR, does shoot RAW, and has a good processing routine, I think they may not be too disappointed with the amount of detail that this camera captures. Personally, I think it is still too early to tell just how good or bad this new camera is.
My comments about DOF had NOTHING to do with "3D look" as may have been brought into this discussion. I was commenting that the first file linked by LCT had an extremely shallow DOF to the point that the eyebrows were OOF just as the eyelashes were starting to come into focus. And the model' right eye is not fully inside the plane of focus, from what I can tell. Therefore, most of the skin one is looking at is OOF, so it should have a smoother look that some see as "plastic". Just my thoughts on this. In the second shot, more things are in focus, and when you look at things at 100%, you can see some of the details, especially around the base of her nose. So, folks may still think all of it has a "plastic" look to it, and that is fine. I just wanted to understand what they were looking at to make those conclusions. I agree that the razor edge sharpness seems a bit smooth, but not sure what is glass, what is sensor, what is processing, what is lighting, what is shooter influenced. Again, not defending the shots from this camera, just trying to create a bit separation and clarity in parts of the discussion so that folks can draw their own conclusions, and not walk away with an impression that blankets things too positively or negatively. I still say we need to wait for some RAW files, more shooting info, and then process them the way we would prefer. I know I have to process my 1DsMkII files differently from my 1DMkII files, and those are both different from my M8 files, but I have found that all can deliver very good results, just not so easily in a "one process fits all" manor.
LJ