>> Is Cinema 4d much better than Carrara is it just that I'm not doing a very good job of rendering.

Well, I can only speak for C4D, not knowing the full potential of the Carrara Render Engine.
Cinema has a solid and quick native engine, capable of excellent results, but what gives it a real boost is the recent implementation of Vray, which, IMHO, is the renderer that gets closest to an unbiased result in a fraction of the time needed with Fryrender, Maxwell or even Indigo.
Dan