I like to get up close pics of objects especially plants and scenery. The problem is when I zoom in the picture is always blurry and cannot focus on objects that are not far away. Is there anyway setting on the camera that would help with this or is the zoom only for zooming on far away objects?

Most cameras come with an option called macro,this setting is for close up shots.on your camera it needs to set at wide angle.when choosing the shooting mode move left or right and choose the icon of a flower.if you adjust the zoom, a zoom bar will appear at the top of the lcd.if you try to use a zoom not intended for macro shots the flower icon will gray out and the bar will appear yellow,if you take a picture with the yellow bar it will be blurry.if you zoom out a little until it stops you should be ok. if you use a flash in macro mode the images edges usually will darken.hope this helps.