Thanks for the full reply Mike. Not sure I'll go trying to track down the outfits, but cheers anyways.
If you like post processing, and your flow is not dissimilar to mine, then you may like one or two of the free filters from Red Paw Media.
http://www.redpawmedia.com/
I use the beautyfy one on almost all figure renders but tone it down some, and then sharpen.
If you're able to do Z dpeth passes then DoF pro is a very nice tool to have BUT it isn't cheap. You can achieve similar reuslts if you know your way around the better versions of photoshop, and can make Z passes.
Finally, there's some nice sci-fi gear from Xurge. http://www.xurge3d.com/
Not much in the way of free stuff but reasonable prices and a nice alternative to Daz or Rendo.