Quote Originally Posted by outofline
I have tried lowering the aperture to 2.8 and adjusting the shutter for correct exposure but I cannot match the focus in the foreground and blur the back ground like my 35mm slr will. What am I doing wrong or is it not possible. Note I am not shooting macro shots.

For an example, I tried focusing on a tree that was about 5 feet away whit the hopes of blurring out the houses in the back ground. But every setting keeps the houses focused quite well.
The focal length of your lens is extremely wide. The DOF will almost always be very large regardless of aperture setting.