Hi !
Both programs have their strenghts and waekneses so just choose one which suits your worklfow. I prefer Lw but i've seen many great things from guys use MAX so no difference there. It's not "tool" what makes art it's Artist
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But if you check bang for buck then MAX doesn't have chance 'coz LW is half of MAX price and you have ALL in box (no need for plugins for anything).
Also my question is why do you ask about LW7 vs MAX 5 when both programs have their current versions in LW 7.5 and MAX 6 ??