Ockham:
As you have pointed out: Ik is fine, wonderful, useful... and you don't need to defend it to me. 
I just want the option to turn it off...even in "direct" mode.
Off = ***Off
***simple, yeah?
 

This very thing has been frustrating me and making me crazy from day one about Poser.
With a name like "Poser", you would think that it would be much, much easier to ..ah, er...POSE things!
And there is a very very simple way to correct the flawed design of the dern thing:

(I will use the forearm as my detailed example, but the principle will hold true for any actor, that is, any segment of the chain)

Regardless of whther the user is in direct select mode, or using dials
-Provided the user has all IK and autobalance turned OFF-
the actor selected should ONLY move via the proximal joint of that segment. IOW, if you grab or select the forearm, the movement will only be occuring at the elbow. There are two movements that need to occur at the elbow joint: A) flex / extend  B) pronate / supinate. (These are anatomical terms, look 'em up if need be.)

PERIOD, okay?! nothing else should occur. PERIOD!

Now, let's say the figure is holding a cup of coffee with the arm at the side and the elbow bent to 90 degrees, okay? If the upper arm (correspoding to the humerus bone) is selected, you should be able to (among other moves) rotate it along the longitudinal axis  (in this case, the y axis*), and in doing so, the coffee cup would travel (being, as it is, held by the hand) in an arc through the z (AKA transverse) plane. The forearm lies and travels in this plane, but the joint movement is occuring, as in real life, at the "spinning" of the upper arm.
In biomechanics this is called "internal / external rotation",  It's Internal/External rotation of the humerus (AT the glenohumeral joint, AKA the shoulder).

So, in my way of doing things, you would'nt be able to grab the forearm and cause the above so called "side to side" movement, or any other movement that doesn't occur normally at the elbow. 

Someone, please get on it and write a python script that will enable this :) 

I really don't understand the rationale or reasons behind an IK system that simply won't turn off  just because you happen to be in direct select mode. Off means Off. Simple.

If they would do it my way, EVERYONE would be MUCH happier, I guarantee it.

PS, granted, there are complexities to the shoulder, specifically in the movement of "squeezing" the shoulders forward or back (scapular abduction / adduction, sometimes called protraction / retraction). ..but this just means adding a "scapula" dial.  

Crocodilian: Poser Pro plus Lightwave? What, will there be support for PoserPro scenes in Lightwave's fantastic renderor, is that what you are saying? That would be cool.

Ashamed of myself, got busy and neglected/forgot to give proper props to nickedshield for the excellent direction that cut to the chase with the optimal solution.

THANKS! 

Hey, "guys", thanks for all the good input; I won't really be doing them all justice in this quick post, just a few notes of clarification:
yeah, I'm using dials not drags. That's why I'm mystified. I was thinking there must be some kinematics beyond the inverse and autobalance that I have disabled, and I could see why that might kick in if you drag a part too far, but if you are using the dials, conservatively at that... why?

I loaded a fresh james in a new scene. Auto balance was not enabled, so I just ticked OFF the IK of the 2 legs (since that is what was enabled). Could move forearms without moving up the chain. Good. That tells me there is something goofy going on  in my armor scene, some strange hierarchy entanglement, even though I did not conform james to armor, or vice versa.
The armor is a figure with full body hierarchy. weird.

No, not using hand cameras.

That set-up room approach sounds great, I hope I can get it to work, because it would be the best approach: get rid of useless geometry, get what I want from the forearms/hands. As long as the hands still have the posing dials and are otherwise poseable after the set-up maneuver. Well, actually, even that is not essential. I mean, If I get the grasping right, and that gets "frozen", so to speak, and only left with the basic properties parameters (trans xyz, etc) to move 'em into place, would work. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself, next move is to just try it, duh :)

sincere Thanks! to all

esther is absolutely right in her comment about "true carpal tunnel" , and that's an example of why you need some competent differential diagnosis. Your mielage will vary depending on your doctor, but what you really want is someone like:

http://www.tomocklerpt.com/

a specialist in MET (muscle energy technique) is probably your best bet for finding someone competent in getting to the true root of the problem, who can work with your doctor, recommend imaging if needed etc. 
People with this training are absolutely among the best remedial biomechanics.

I Know, Tom Ockler helped me tremendously with a severe recurrent neck pain problem. One visit to his clinic was all it took, the follow up visit was just for re-enforcement of what I had learned. Absolutely took care of the problem at the biomechanical root.
I also know cuz I have worked in the field  as a physical therapist myself (tho I left to pursue a start-up 3D graphics thing, thus the Poser) 

tebop, if you can possibly get to NE ohio, go see Tom, he's a good guy. If not, I'm sure he could help you find someone close enough for you to visit a couple times will be all you need. 
 

aaarrrgggghhhh!
I just posted a super-detailed reply to try to help tbop, and the stupid proram then insisted that I log in (which I was already), and then it vaporized my post. I will rebuild this post tomorrow, but not before I notepad it first. DAmn, I hate when that happens! 

Thanks, stormchaser. 
Yeah, I hear ya.
 I'd much rather have a more straight-forward approach than in Poser, using IBL to cover the global illum function :( 

I will check that out, not sure if we own it yet but we soon will for sure. 
It's an app i see mentioned a lot in the Poser realm. 
Does it stand alone and open poser pz3 files?    

thanks Akhiris
what v. Poser you running? 
I'm running 6 and I have no render tab in my general preferences menu.

ghonma, excellent suggestion.

Like I said, I am in "testing the boundaries" mode. Who knows, I may decide we do need to render elsewhere for some things. Porting (via polytrans) to XSI is a probably a decent option,  available and familiar to us. I like Lightwave's rendering engine, also.

 What rendering app would you (all) recommend?
maybe I should start a new thread with this question.

Whatever app it is, chances are very good we already own copies :)

Well, all the input has been good and appreciated.
Props to replicand for the best suggestion, Eye think, because I changed the min shade rate to 1 as suggested, and am now happily rendering away, tho I must confess re-dimensioning also to 6000 X 4000, still quite large.

per some of the comments:
believe it or not, I am rendering only one (or two,  when they are intiricated)  objects at a time, then exporting as png for compositing in Photoshop.
  
My printed size: I'm testing the boundaries (on the Poser side of things) for getting into small to medium poster sizes. A 20 inch length poster is not really a big poster.  I am also keeping in mind "you can always go smaller" as I build our collection of graphic assets.

You are right Akhiris, I am assuming the need for a resolution of AT LEAST 300 dpi. So, you suggest I re-think that, eh? We need fine art quality prints.  A start-up venture, we are taking delivery on a 25k USD printer next thursday.  (okay, it's a floor model and cost us half that.)

Akhiris, I tried it in GloWorm as a normal render, not thinking that it would make a difference (because it's still Firefly based), and I was right, still had the same issue. 
What process did you have in mind?  

Firefly manual settings, cast shadows only (no ray trace nor texture filter)
max bucket 16
max texture 512
pixel sample 2
min shade rate .2

3 lights in scene, one of which is IBL without shadows or AO or image map

Stormchaser, thanks for your response. Eye thought about that, but my first reaction to that is: NoFlippinWay! 
I really do not wanna do that, but yeah, I may have to, as a last resort. 
I'm not willing to go straight to that as an answer, not just yet. 

So, back to your suggestion,  would you use area render, just eyeballing the strips, then? Or, is there a precise way to slice up the render real estate that I don't know about?.

You know what's even better? Although haven't officially timed it, eye  swear my  -much better- renders are actually**  faster**  with ibl.

I'm still unclear as to whats happening in the material room of the IBL light versus the property panels, but give me some time  to absorb excellent tutorial above, and play :)