Many of the MiniDV camera lenses, especially those with image stabilization, tend to drift out of focus after a few minutes. It is also hard to judge whether you are in focus when you are looking at a small monitor on set.

This means that even professional lenses can be tricky to judge focus by. You may not be able to tell a shot is actually soft (out of focus) when you are making edit decisions from a small monitor during editing.

A slightly soft shot may pass the editor, but it may not be acceptable once it’s seen on the big screen. Make sure your shots are in focus before every take and try to use a high res monitor (or even a digital projector) when determining whether shots you are choosing are in focus or not. Anything that looks slightly out of focus on a small monitor could look very soft on the big screen.