I have played with both and I found 3DS Max to be more "user friendly", but I have no real experience to advise further.

 

I think C4D is better for a beginner, for a Pro user is better 3DSMax because have a more powerful render engine. You can always try a demo

Thanks for your input, Dog, by "user friendly" do you mean that the interface is a little easier to find your way around in? Maybe easier to understand? Thanks, Rad

3ds max is and it will stay as my first choise.

I like 3DS Max, however, I've been keeping an eye on Carrara now that its owned by Daz3D. I've never used Cinema4D so I can't speak for it. Carrara Express is available for less than $100.00 ($19.99 if you are a Daz Platinum Club Member). I do a lot of work in Poser 6 and its time comsuming at best and sometimes problematic to import any animation longer than about 120 frames to 3DS Max.
Saving my pennies for Carrara, just emptied the piggy bank upgrading from WB6 to the Full OD product.

Dave

3ds max for its wealth of tutorials and materials\meshes\resources available online, dwarf's everything else. Probably the most complte product too.

Complete even.   

Yup, thx for that, I didn't know how to spell it.   

Thanks everyone for your input, it's such a big purchase I don't want to make the wrong one. You guys are a big help! It looks like it may be 3ds. Thanks, Rad

If you attend a university, chances are you are able to get a student copy/license of either one for a very reasonable price.

If you want to create scenery, I would recommend Bryce. Blender is also a good modeling application, mostly because it is free

I would go with 3DSMax...