yah blender is pretty bad. But its a great way for beginners to get into 3d stuff. same wif Cinema 4D, and ZBrush. For advanced people, Maya, XSI Softimage, and a couple of other are the way to go.
zbrush isnt bad at all I personally think its the best for charcter modeling its quick and easy once you get the hang of it and the amount of detail you can add is amazing. but it pays to have 3ds,xsi or maya to complete that smexy render..