I stumbled accross an extension for Blender / 3DS Max in the Blender.org WIKI by random, which allows to export complete 3DS MAX scenes (including mesh, materials, textures, cameras, animations...) to Blender:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Exten ... nterchange
(Download-link included in the wiki page)
To see how it works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLsMzmaH05g
Although the wiki states it's for Blender 2.53 only, the author Silvio Falcinelli has already adapted it for Blender 2.59 2 weeks ago.
See his homepage, find it under Download (button left-hand side at the bottom):
http://www.rendering3d.net/
Plus, there are plans to reverse the process (Blender 2.6 to 3DS Max).
I think this could be interesting; but because I don't have access to Max 8, 9 or 10, it would be nice if somebody who has, could give it a try and report how it behaves with Ages build in MAX?