hello everyone,
thanks a lot for all your responses and advices. i have decided to keep the camera and i will not have done that if not for all your comments and opinions. today, i went home and try the manual focus that one of you adviced. i zoom in, manual focus, zoom to compose, and shoot. it WORKS!!! silent and accurate! i think you people are really kind and wonderful. hope that i will be able to continue to learn many things on this camera from all of you. thanks again.