it's faster and it's always good to have a depth pass :) but it's not better, real 3d dof is pretty much always going to look better than something done in post.

That said if it's more than a few...

simple != good

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11468835/dof_version_2.ma

Link would help, btw that one only comes with the 'it works for me guarantee' ;)

Dave

Here is a scene file that will do about that with physical_lens_dof in MR

Same setup as before but with 2 planes the closer they get together the shallower the depth of field. Second plane...

In this tutorial we create a simple camera rig to give you an easy visual way to control DOF in Maya.

Easy Depth of Field in Maya (DOF) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmpks1xS9No)
...