OPTIO 430

BECOMING DISAPPOINTED WITH RESULTS FROM MY ATTEMPS TO TAKE PHOTOS FOR A PRODUCT CATALOGUE.
THE CAMERA IS A PENTAX OPTIO 430

I'M PHOTOGRAPHING ALUMINIUM VALVES WHICH I CAN THEN EDIT AND PUT INTO A BROCHURE BUT JUST CAN'T SEEM TO GET THE CLARITY AND SHARPNESS THAT I WOULD EXPEXT FROM A 4M CAMERA.
WHAT SETTINGS SHOULD I BE USING?

THE SUBJECT IS MOVEABLE BUT I HAVE BEEN 2FT AWAY, ON A TABLE TOP, LIGHTING IS PRETTY BRIGHT FLOURESCENT TUBES.I DO CHANGE WHITE BALANCE TO THE FLOURESCENT SETTING AND MACRO SETTING
I USE THE "BEST" SETTING, THREE STARS,

ANYBODY ANY IDEAS ?

MANY THANKS MARTIN

I think it's unlikely that the light is bright enough.

I don't know much about your camera, but I suspect that you won't have much luck trying to get it to work with a separate flash unit.

You could try buying a couple of 500W halogen lights (about a tenner at B&Q), and bouncing them off a white wall or other white object.