Question on focus and glass

[MRBONNETHEAD]

Hey guys!
I just wanted to say that you guys take amazing photos.
The question though is about focus.
Whenever I go to take a picture of my fish, I cant zoom in or else it gets all blurry. All the pictures are trashed. I figured out this is because the camera focuses on the glass and not the fish. I end up using no zoom and taking my photos from there. This allows for ok photos but if I could zoom in they would be incredible.
I have a Sony DSC-H2
Is there a setting or way that I can zoom in without it getting blurry???????????
How do you guys take your photos with zoom through the glass?

 

[Frisco]

IME the auto focus only gets confused when the glass is fairly dirty, and it sounds like you are just zooming too much. You might just be zooming outside of the range that the camera can focus properly. My suggestion is to try to focus manually if you can, or zoom in just before the point at which the auto focus stops working.

 

[mystic7]

Yes, if you're too close to a subject it won't focus. This is true of even expensive lenses, there is a minimum distance at which you can focus. Even a macro lens usually has a minimum distance of about 1". If you can manually focus, do that. Turn your focus all the way, then back off until the subject comes into focus.

 

[mystic7]

I mean, step back until the subject comes into focus, not back off on the focal ring.