Hi!

It really is a matter of personal preference and the area you'd like to work on. If you do 3D as a hobby, any 3D modeler will do. There are many good programs out there for free: some good modelers are Wings3D [url][link] or PPModeler [url][link]
Blender is a complete suite of 3D tools, but it takes a while to learn its bits. Reading books like this [url][link] definitely flattens the learning curve.
DAZ studio is free, too and it's very user friendly, and used by many hobbyists. Caligari also offers an older version of it's suite Truespace 3.2.

Design professionals use software suited for their specific needs: Strata 3D, (Industrial design),
XSI, Cinema 4D, Houdini (CGI movies), to name a few, but there are dozens of them. 3D Studio, Maya, Lightwave, these are very popular. These packages are usually cost from a few hundred to a few thousand bucks.

There are some not-so-expensive suites that are easy to start with, for example Carrara Express. It costs around $90, and it is not a bad thing to start with.

Hope that helps.

strip the [/url] from the end of the links, I messed them up

nice, thanks!

I would be curious what is your conclusion...?

I would just add that an important question is what kind of 3d modeling technique you're into (polygons, Nurbs, or digital sculpting). It is something crucial regarding a software choice.

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