Yes, using DCR-250 is quite frustrating sometimes due to the very shallow depth of field. It's more frustrating if you don't use a tripod. And it's not always practically possible to use a tripod while shooting live objects. Which camera body are you using?
yes, it is. It's hard to get the focus. I use Fujifilm XT1.
Well, yes, an external flash will definitely help. As the depth of field becomes shallow, you have to decrease the aperture as minimum as possible and ISO as low as possible. With an external flash, you can able to get more light in the scene and you can use the desired settings to take the photo. You can either use a TTL flash or a manual flash. In manual flash, you have to set the intensity of the flash manually, where in TTL flash, the camera automatically detects the scene and set the intensity of the flash automatically. I have a manual flash because those are cheap compared to TTL flash.
