FOCUS ERROR MESSAGE, RED FLASHING , RED BATTERY SYMBOL, CAMERA SYMBOL,A AND FLOWER SYMBOL ..WHITE HAND IN STOP SIGNAL AND EXCLAMATION SYMBOL

Please recharge the battery in the camera.

You have to know if the FOCUS is the issue or SHUTTER SPEED. In most cases with most CoolPix Cameras if the Image is not in focus (When you push shutter down HALFWAY) the Focus Rectangle will not be GREEN... If it RED it cannot focus. If every time you take a photo the focus area is red then it is not focusing. Small Coolpix cameras have difficulty focusing in low light.

Low light can make a hand held image look blurry because of hand shake. If the light is so low it wants to take a long exposure. This works with a tripod, but not with a hand held photo. With most of these small cameras you can take 1 second night photos with a tripod. They would look horrible handheld.

Typically on the Coolpix cameras you can set the FOCUS mode. It is usually shown with a FLOWER for MACRO... You get AF / FLOWER / MOUNTAIN / MANUAL (may not have this)

Plase make sure your FOCUS MODE is in AF AF is the ONLY Mode where the camera will focus CLOSE and FAR... Light is not your problem..... It seems it is your FOCUS MODE.

You have put the camera into "Macro" mode. That's an extreme close-up mode for photographing... flowers! Hence the flower symbol. While in macro mode the camera won't be able to autofocus on objects at normal distances.

I don't know your camera, so cannot advise on how you get out of macro mode, but many cameras have a physical switch with flower, head-and-shoulders, and mountain icons, for very close, medium, and far focus ranges. My Lumix has macro mode as one of the selections on the rotary mode selection knob. My canon has it on the ring around the Function button. All marked with a little flower.

When using the tele, the closest you can be to a object is probably more that one meter. If you need to get closer you should switch to macro mode.

The red light is probably the focusing beam. I'd guess that your flash is turned off somewhere in your settings. Go through the menu and if you find that it is not turned on there might be a hardware problem. Also, if the flash is set to automatic, it will not work when it thinks there is enough light to take a good pic.

turn the flash on and the symbol will go.

I called customer suppot.

Follwed these steps:

1. Make sure camera and subject are perfectly still
2. Push flower button till white flower is on screen
3. slowly press zoom in and out till flower turns yellow
4. wait 10 secondes or so
5. camera will focus on object
6. if not, press zoom in/out again, then wait again

Things to check before you assume it is a mechanical issue-you can get vibration message if flash is disabled, be sure also that the macro mode is not enabled-this is very common on sony cameras to turn on by accident-flower button on camera will put in close up mode and you will get blur make sure no flower is present on lcd screen-if in macro press button on camera w/flower to turn off-also in menu you have continuous and monitor auto focus settings try changing one or the other and see what happens

Just turn off macro mode - that's it...

OK Guys...After fidgitting for hours on this with the bits & pieces on this forum & on others...here's how I got it to finally work:

A- I have a Pentax Opio S hence I had to get the "fwdc110p.bin" file here:

http://www.pentax.de/mediapool/attachments/photo/100/104/46139/fwdc110p.zip

Optio S4, S4i & S5i shall use another file. Don't really know for S4 but for S4i & S5i, there on the Pentax customer service website at:

http://www.pentaximaging.com/customer_care/software_firmware?sfFlag=f

B- Drop this file on your SD Card at the root directory (same level as DCIM folder) or as described by the following link and then close your camera to OFF:

http://www.pentaximaging.com/customer_care/show_firmware?firmId=1020

Attention: Do not load this file yet onto the camera i.e. the menu+power on procedure, follow step C first...

C- Open the now infamous "Secret Menu" in order to re-initialize your camera prior to re-installing the new firm ware:

Simultaneously press MENU + Flash symbol button + Power ON...a white screen with data written in black should show.

Then a sequence of buttons must be pressed: 2 times the focus button (flower, mountain, MF symbols button) followed by 2 toggles to the Right of the "OK" button...then press MENU once and voilà...ze Secret Menu appears !

Using the down toggle of the OK button, go to "SYSTEM INITIAL" and press OK. Press another OK to re-initialize your camera.

Once this has been completed, turn your camera off.

D- Load the firm ware by opening your camera with the MENU+Power ON procedure...finally this should be posting "Complete" after the "Loading" message, instead of the "Error!" that we initially kept on having.

Your camera should be working perfectly ! Only thing, is that you will have to redo your personal settings on it from scratch...but hey, this is much better than to wait for months to get your camera back from Pentax and save that money for your next photogenic trip !