Truespace 4 is $200 It maybe doesn't have every modelling feature in the world but it is easy to learn for people who don't come from other apps. It also has a healthy amount of free and cheap plugins available for it, and a decent renderer. (Hybrid radiosity/raytracing, volumetrics etc...) If ya wanted to render poser animations you would need to spring for Konan's Truepose plugin ($100) but for stills you can use the free LUUV plugin