I'm desparate! I bought a new digital camera (Kodak DX4530 5MP) and am having some trouble learning how to get sharp pictures when I use the macro setting. Any tips? Suggestions?

Most macro setting is designed still for a certain distance the best thing if for you to read the macro information of the camera. It should tell you the minimum distance that you can be from an object that you are photographing. Macro doesn’t mean that you can capture and image from 2 inches away it all depends on the lens and it focal plain and length.

As well as making sure you're in the camera's focussing range you've got to be sure there's no camera shake. Unless you've got bright light you may need to use a tripod. This also gives you the option of narrowing down the aperture to increase your depth of focus and get more of your image sharp (unless you delibeartely want to restrict the amount of your image which is in focus). Use A (Aperture Priority) mode and select the largest number you can to maximise the depth, the trade off being you'll be using a longer exposure time. Hope this helps :-)

I have an automatic camera with a macro mode. The problem is that it will often focus on the background, rather than the object. There are two ways I have found to combat theis problem; 1. move/zoom a bit further away. 2. Put something directly behind the object, eg your hand or a piece of paper, or try to get only sky in the background. If you have an automatic you will probably have to do the same sort of thing.

i've got a kodak easy share, too. it's a dx something. i don't have it in front of me. i think it might be the camera because i've had trouble getting close-up shots of stuff, too. i haven't fiddled with it too much, but it doesn't seem to work the best. i'd just try and do what these guys have said and get a tripod to keep it steady and see if you can keep everything as still as possible. otherwise i've found that even if you take it from a little further (farther?) away the definition is pretty good anyway so you could just zoom in a little on your computer.
hope this helps.
-jim

You might also need to lock the mirror to eliminate fuzziness related to camera shake. When using telephoto and sometimes macro, I found that a remote controller is very helpful in eliminating "fuzziness".

Many cameras will adjust and lock the focus on the object you want if you depress the shutter button half-way down until you see a ( usually green) light beside or in your view finder, that tells you that it is in focus...... if you move the camera away while still holding the button half-way, it will stay at that same focal depth, so you don't have to have the subject in the center of the frame to have it in focus. I hope this helps. :c)