Sorry, the above picture, with its blowout lighting, was rendered with version v1.48.66.
I have now installed v1.48.67, and giving it a try.
I tried to render the same Scene, however after 50 minutes the, Building Photon Map process was only 70% done, hence I abandoned, the Rendering process. Something is clearly wrong!
thomthom, you still have my file and png's of my settings. Perhaps if you have time, you might give it a try.