Well, I'm still on my quest for an easy to use renderer :)

Blender - has a really terrible interface, it seems very difficult for me to learn, given I really don't have much time to spend on it.

3ds Max - at $4,000, it's way over my current price limit, and also it has a pretty archaic interface...

Cinema 4D - this looks pretty good. However, it'd end up costing about $2,500 for the Core and added modules I'd want.

Modo - currently I'm thinking this might be my best bet. $1,000 and seems to be a pretty good package for modelling and rendering (and even a bit of animation).

Carrara - well, if I can find August issue of 3D World magazine, I can get the Carrara 7 Pro version for free :) I've had a little bit of a play with the trial version, and so far I'm liking it a lot better than Blender!!

I wonder if it's worth spending $1000 on Modo right now, if Carrara 7 Pro might be able to do what little I'm after?