I still use Poser4 to create images. A scene created and renderd in Poser4 doesn't look the same in newer versions of Poser. If you created a scene in Poser4 render it in Poser4, if you want to render a scene in Poser7 create it in Poser7.

Which is better and which is worst depend on waht you want to achieve. Poser4 had many bugs, many bugs were fixed, many bugs continue to exists and many new bugs were added. Also were added new features so you can do things that were impossible to do in Poser4.

The main differences between Poser4 and other versions, assuming that you use a topologically correct mesh are:

• Normals are different. Poser4 calculates normals in the old classic way, Poser use other method for calculating the normals. A border looks smooth in Poser4, in Poser it becomes sharp, you have some control on this, but never will look the same as in Poser4. Depending on the case, it can be better or worst.

• Illumination is different. Poser4 and Poser use different illumination model and the difference of illumination in preview and rendering mode is even bigger than in Poser4.

• Poser has a bug and continue to have with ambient color. If an old Poser4 model or an obj mesh has ambient color, this ambient color is ignored in Poser and set to zero. You have to set the ambient color by hand in the material room.

• The camera of Poser is different than in Poser4, it handles much better walls obstructing the camera, Poser4 is bugy in this case.

• Always turn off "smooth polygons" in Poser to make compatible with Poser4. Smooth polygons can turn a cylinder into a barrel.

• Shadows are better in Poser, but raytraced shadows, even are better, can produce nasty artifacts.

• Of course you have no ambient occlusion, environment lighting, mirrors, dynamic cloth and hair, atmospheric effect, volumetric lights in Poser4.

• Poser4 is much faster rendering and posing a scene.

And you can have Poser4 and other Poser sharing the same library without any problem, so you can use both.

Stupidity also evolves!