Hi Charlie, Great Pictures
I have the Sony FD 75. A friend told me about a trick with it the other day. Thought you might want to try it. It seems to improve the focus of close ups to even better than they are. Agree with you that the 10X optical zoom is great!
1. Zoom in on the subject as close as you can without the preview in the viewfinder going out of focus.
2. Press the shutter button half way down. You will hear the camera beep and a green dot will light up in the viewfinder. This has locked in the autofocus.
3. Keep the shutter button held half way down to keep the autofocus locked and zoom out slightly to frame the picture and then press the shutter button all the way down to to trip the shutter.
4. I discovered that you can work the shutter button with the index finger of the right hand and the zoom control with your thumb.
It appears to me that this does make a difference as the the aera in front of the subject and in back of the subject are both in focus as well as the subject. Take a look at the pic I posted in the thread called How Do You Keep It Clean....The subject...Shop Vac parts... were only about 6" from the camera lens