I use the Depth of Field feature all the time. These are the settings I usually use. Depending on the complexity of the scene (reflections, transparency, etc...) a 960x720 render with D.O.F. and Premium Render on takes anywhere from a few hours to overnight. That's on a Mac G4 450Mhz with 896MB RAM (600MB to Bryce5). Surprisingly, the "soft shadows" option adds more to the render time than the depth of field does. Try the settings exactly as I have them here and let me know how long your render takes. Don't give up on it, it's a great effect. I have lots of work in my gallery with this effect. Good luck.