Daz 3d has been one of the biggest names in Poser related models and props created their own cut down version of Poser, known as Daz Studio.   This was a free "Tell ware" program that got many people, myself included, into 3D work.  Over the years, Daz Studio became more powerfull with more features,  makeing it more professional  and more  enjoyable to use.  

In June 2009  Daz introduced both a free and a paid version of Studio, known as Daz Studio 3   Core and Advanced, and I was fortunate enough to beta test, and also have both versions.

Studio Core incudes many of the upgrades in the Advanced version including the new 3Delight  8.5 however  Advanced includes lighting and morphing abilities that  for a serious user is very usefull

 Many of the plugins  that worked on V2 of Studio  are still being rewritten for V3, in particular ones that I use by Omnifreaker (Pwtoon, Relight etc) however they will be released for Daz 3 users as a free upgrade.

 On the whole, a casual user does not need the have the advanced features and will have a lot of fun, and produce beautiful work.  For those who do professional level work, while Poser may still have more features, (hair simulation etc)  Daz Studio Advanced is an excelent tool for any 3D figure artist.  And when combined with Carrara 7  and Hexigon 2.5,  the sky and your mind is the only limit to what you can do.