@solo said:

Excellent responses guys, and I agree the top image just does not look right, I was not sure if the DOF was to strong or just wrong, to me it has a 'tilt shift' feel, just as you noticed David, it looks miniature.

Just stumbled upon this discussion. At the risk of going taking it a touch off-topic, there's a dutch photographer that uses a technical camera and DOF to create this "miniature" effect with real-world objects on purpose. There's some nice examples of images from a building site here: http://www.martinluijendijk.nl/projecten/voortgang.htm

Cheers.