I used to shoot also with Fuji 617 (using 105 and 180mm lenses) and I would say that the DOF was much more shallow than you can get today with an APS-sized sensor and a 30mm lens.
Set the camera to MF, distance to infinity or just slighly nearer, and take all the shots you need.
If you feel so inclined, you can change the distance to 2-5m, (depending on your foregound), and take another set. Prior to stitching, crop the unsharp part from all images (foreground from the first set, the top portion from the second set), and send it to your stitching program.