Basically wide angle lenses help a TON!! I'm almost always shooting on the glidecam with the 16-35 shooting somewhere between 16-24. I set the focus to infinity and then FLY AWAY ;)

Say with a 24-105 f4L at 24 setting focus to infinity is gonna make the whole band 5 feet away out of focus. I could see this working with landscape shots but close in even with wide angle I have problems.

It all depends on your aperture. Stop down to F8 & at 24mm you are in focus from 4ft to infinity. Using the 16-35mm zoom as Michael is then you can have even greater depth of field. At 16mm even at F5.6 you are in focus from a tad over 3ft to infinity.

What get's much more difficult is when you want to work with a very narrow DOF e.g. at 24mm & F8 if focused on a subject at 3ft the DOF is between 2.2ft & 4.8ft i.e. 2.6ft (less than 1m). Charles Papert posted on here recently recommending that aspiring Steadicam operators consult DOF calculators when planning shots.

I keep a set of general charts in our three camera bags based on our average prime FL 28mm, 50mm, 85mm, etc. I have print outs of DOF and hyperfocal for these lenses from their lowest aperture 1.2/1.8 through a range of these average stops - 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11

It's a good reference for shallow DOF closeups, tracking moving subjects etc. on the fly.

Wonderful advice on the DOF charts which I've not visited in years.....now i really need them!! DoF Calculator for the iPhone has been super help.