The Prime version of C4D at $995.- should be within the reach for most of us.

The C4D Studio version at $3,695 is quite expensive. But if you look at the demo reels on youtube, you will see that Carrara can't even do 1/100 of what C4D can.

Besides, wouldn't you rather spend $995 to $3,695 for C4D and have numerous professional opportunities open-up before you, or spend $549.- for a Carrara that nobody knows about?

Do this experiment: Go to some CG site and start talking about Carrara. Either they don't know what Carrara is, or they know and they will laugh at you as if you were some schmuck wasting their time.

I have already done this experiment and I am talking from experience.

Regarding the cheerleaderism, when the cheerleader is a failed art student who couldn't get past Maya 101, and now is showing his ineptitude by getting blown-away by everything that Daz cooks, then I say to myself that this situation is ridiculous and unbearable. So it's time to trash Carrara.

There are many alternatives to Carrara, besides C4D.

First there is Shade, which has support for Poser contents, modeling tools far more advaced than Carrara, and a superb renderer that very closely rivals VRay.

Then There is Lightwave which currently runs for $995.- and has support for Poser contents through Poser Fusion.

And of course there is Modo which is rapidly becoming the 'Reference 3D App', the one 3D app against which everything else is being measured.

If you need landscape modeling, there is Vue. Its Frontier version has direct support for Daz/Poser contents and can render hyper-realistic atmospheres a lot faster than Carrara can.

With such superb, and quite affordable, alternatives who needs Carrara anyway? Let the cheerleader-fanboy-failed-art-student be its only customer, for all I care.