Quote - I use DAZ Studio 99.99% of the time. I've worked with Poser since version 1.5 and gave up on it after DS3 Advanced was released. I keep a current Poser license only for product development — but never use it for rendering anymore. Now I'm familiarizing myself with DS4 and am excited about its new features. Even on a Mac Pro, Poser still hangs and hesitates and it takes forever to set up a scene. DAZ Studio 3's content management system has made finding assets so much easier and I can whip up and render a scene in no time. Plus, I like the 3Delight render engine better than Firefly.

 

Poser's lighting works differently than DazStudio lighting system.  I actually switched from DazStudio to Poser because there was more flexibility in Poser, which translates into working harder to get great results, but after learning a few trick with Poser, it's actually much easier now.  I haven't tried DazStudio 4 yet but I do have it.  From what I can tell it's starting to have many of the same features that Poser has which is good.

You are right about the scene being easier to set up and I'm hoping that Poser Pro 2012 has learned some lessons from DazStudio.  I also hope the new Firefly render engine was upgraded to be able to compete with luxrender