Quote - Those comparisons are hardly like-with-like.   With Poser Pro, the gamma option is one of a number of options to be applied at the point of creation of the basic image.

Gamma correction is just one small part of tone mapping that is supposed to be applied as a whole package of tweaks, not a single number like poser does it. Why else do you think all the renders being posted by the people using it are washed out and crappy looking ? To fix that you need all the other parameters that i showed you in the pix. You esp need exposure, without which gamma is worthless and will flatten the heck out of your lighting.

Quote - I have a pretty long-in-the-tooth version of PS which was far from cheap - I don't think it has got any less dear in the meantime.

So PPro users are expected to have $4k copies of MAX, Maya and XSI but not a $900 copy of Photoshop ? And apps like HDRShop and picturenaut are free and will do the same thing, i just posted the 'pro' ones to be fair.

Quote - Who ever said Poser Pro was a replacement for Photoshop???

SM sure as hell are pushing that lousy gamma as some kind of miracle slider that will free you from having to do any postwork on your work. It's listed as a whole amazing new feature if you look at their site, when in reality it's not even the left toe of one.

Quote - As far as testers commenting, I never even cared to look if P7 renders looked identical to Poser Pro's.. my concern was that I could do better renders faster.

I'm not trying to pick on the beta testers, i know how hard it is to test any app in the limited time you get. My thinking is more that SM pulled a fast one on you guys. And in my testing i'v not seen huge amount of differences in render times, so it would be helpful if you could give some more details here about what kind of scenes have been faster for you.

And 'better' is very very subjective. Maybe some people like the washed out / clipped renders people are getting with PPro, maybe some don't. Either way, there is no new render feature in PPro (like GI or area lights etc) that can be called 'better' IMO. It's mostly just reworking of the same old stuff we've had in P7 and trying to make it sound 'cool' with little practical benefits.