Samsung FlipShot SCH-U900

I've had the Flip Shot for about a week now and I'm having an issue with the auto focus. It seems to be stuck or not functioning. I know it's not just shaky hands or cell phone camera quality because I've seen sample pictures on-line that look great. The pictures I tried taking were outside on a sunny day and there is no "ghosting" indicating the camera or object is being moved, it is just out of focus.On the other hand, objects about a foot away are bright and clear (I took a picture of a wine glass on a table cloth and you can count the stitches in the weave of the fabric)

I've checked all the options, tried them every which way, reset all the options... I finally called Verizon and they recommended a hard boot (pull out the battery while the phone is on and leave it out for at least 10 seconds) After that I turned it back on and the focus seemed to work for about 10 minuets although it still seemed kind of sluggish. Now it doesn't work again and hard booting no longer fixes the problem.

Any ideas?