When I first purchased Poser 3 it was about 270$ Australian (approx half that for US or UK) back in 1998. Now its almost 800$ (Australian Dollars) here now (believe me wages have not matched that), with most of the profesional packages recently cutting their prices by half to as much as three quarters (Max, Maya even Softimage) my question is, Is Poser worth it? Dont get me wrong I still like Poser but I have to pose the question.

Any purchase, especially a "major" purchase (generally defined against current financial status), is a Cost-Benefit Analysis. * If the Cost outweighs the Benefit, it is not worth it. * If the Benefit outweighs the Cost, it is worth it. The only person who can answer this type of question is the consumer.

My point exactly, I'm finding it hard to justify to myself upgrading to Poser 5 when there are better applications out there getting cheaper, not to mention the many free applications around now as well.

My bitch exactly. Buying P5 upgrade in Canada works out at about 100. Buying in UK (where Curious Labs redirects you), no upgrade available(?) costs 320 + carriage + tax = ~400. Poser might be easy to use but it is no longer cheap enough to justify.

but $800 Australian is about 280 isn't it which works out cheaper than the uk price..or am i over simplifying things and wages aren't matched up..just curious..Steve

If everybody acted like consumers then the products in this world would be a measure better and maybe companies would treat customers better too. :)

Well I definitely think it IS worth it. With all of its many bugs and quirks, Poser 5 offers enough major workflow and functional enhancements to justify the cost. For me, the new Material Room, and the enhanced interface justifies the cost, let alone the other good stuff like the hair and cloth rooms, displacement mapping, etc.

To answer steveshank's question. Approximatly double your prices pounds or US$ it doesnt seem to matter which currency it just works out that way, then due to import, duties and Tax the Item is usualy doubled again. So 200 becomes about 800. A bit fustrating to us colonials but lifes cruel. So I think I'll stick with Poser 4 for the moment.

I was lucky, I got hold of the upgrade through Canadian contacts as I really wanted the cloth upgrade. But the rancour is still there on principle