VIXIA HF R800 Focusing Issue

[bob_stl]

I bought two VIXIA HF R800s to record my church's services. The problem that I have is that if I frame a round two people, one may be in focus and the other 2 to 3 feet away side by side will be completely out of focus. It seems like the depth of field is horrible. I don't mind so much if I'm zoomed in on the pastor and people 6 - 8 feet behind aren't in focus, but when people are within a foot or two different relative to the camera, I would like to have them both in reasonable focus than be able to see nose hairs on one and a big blur on the other.

I was thinking that I could turn off face detection, but I don't want to do that if the whole scene will be out of focus. I can't tell how in or out of focus something is on the little 2 inch, low res screen. Please, help.

[Tim · Accepted solution]

bob_stl, 

You will need more depth of field  in order to get more subject into focus.  We recommend using the manual mode.

[bob_stl]

Thanks Tim,
I was concerned about my ability with reading glasses and astigmatism in one of my eyes to manually focus using the little screen, but it worked out pretty well.

Bob