Speaking of Carrara... is there ANY form of trial or demo for Carrara 8?

(is it similar in function and interface to Carrara 7? Because I can find a trial for that...)

I'd kinda like to test it out... I'm looking for a new renderer (really hating Blender's terrible interface, and 3ds Max is too expensive at $4,000)...

So far I'm thinking Modo. But perhaps I should consider Cinema 4D or Carrara?