Amazing cam on the specks sheet.... not! – There's a very accurate review by JenniferMarie here. I'll second that. I got the camera for exactly the same reason and faced the same issues. But what’s significantly wrong with the camera is its terrible battery life.

150 stills with 30 flash inclusive photos and 10 mins of HD video will kill the battery

Auto focus keeps going into macro mode for some reason.

Cannot quickly autofocus on moving objects.

Needs flash for a good moving photo in medium light.

In the end you get around the auto focus limits and work with the manual settings.... but you shouldn’t need to!!!! and the short battery life means you cannot use the camera to its full potential without carrying few spares..... gas guzzler this is :-)

But overall its a beautiful camera as the photos that "do" come out good are well over par.

The Zoom is amazing and sharp till 10x optical. Close up Flash, Zoom, Macro, Video Quick button Battery, extreemly slow autofocus, anti shake.