In many other editors, such as Valve's Hammer Editor or Crytek's Sandbox, you can move around the 3D view with WASD (or equivalent movement keys) for movement and mouse for panning. In CK, however, it seems that the orbiting camera (holding Shift) is mostly meant for, well, orbiting and not really moving around.

I don't really see the reasoning behind Beth's design decision, but that could just be me and it's been in their editors for ages. However, is there any way to enable "normal" WASD movement ("flying")?
Also, can you change the render view's Field of View? It seems very low at the moment.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Alternatively, is there a way to separate the object orbit camera from the general turning camera? What I mean by this is that I would like to still rotate the camera around itself instead of the selected object, even when something is selected.

Nope, I'm afraid that's not possible. I agree with you though, using the WASD keys to navigate is very familiar to many modders, especially those who have worked with Hammer or UDK.