Working with the Beta, I was actually really impressed.  The Beta would render things that I couldn't render in the stable, pre 3.0 release, and do it faster than I expected, which is a HUGE bonus.  Because I didn't take and/or have the time to really delve into it like I wanted, I wasn't able to really get a handle on things I really wanted to use (like area lights and the shader mixer), but from what I've seen, they're impressive.

As moderator for both the Poser and DAZ Studio areas of the site, I get a unique perspective on different things.
In the DAZ Studio gallery, you'll see more animals and still life portraits.
In the Poser gallery, you'll see more figure portraits.

After having to mostly work with their own surface settings for the past few years, many DAZ studio users are a lot more willing to spend more time on a render, and many Poser images are obvious "Load and Render".  DAZ Studio users are, also, usually more forgiving than Poser users when something doesn't work to spec, and will fix it and send the fix to the vendor. (Granted, a lot of them are getting a bit more than ticked off that they have to do it, but, well, can ya blame them?  Especially if an item says "Tested in DS")

This may come as a shock to you guys, but I was totally geeked out last month to find that there were DAZ Studio artists (Igolochka and someone else, I forget now, and I left the magazine at my mom's) who were featured in 3D Artist magazine...and their work was, in fact, comparable to the images rendered in high-end applications, like 3DS Max and Cinema 4D.  Poser is advertised in at least 2 places (front inside cover and table of contents) in that magazine, but nothing Poser was featured.   I hope we have Poser artists that ARE trying to get their work featured in magazines, and I hope it's the best work they have, and I hope that it's comparable to renders in high-end apps.  It's possible, it really is.  We have the knowledge, it's shared here, FREELY, on a daily basis.  We have the knowledge to create professional grade works of art.  

Also, yes, take a GOOD look at the bundle.  While it's got a lot of good stuff in it, you may already have the stuff that's in it.  I have most of it already, so I'm not buying the larger bundle, but I will be getting the Advanced program when I get paid :)

Sitemail | Freestuff | Craftythings | Youtube|

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.