Er, isn't there a difference between "out of focus" which comes from not focusing correctly or focusing correctly but accidently moved camera forwards or backwards and forgotten to refocus, as well as not using depth of field correctly, against that of "blurred images" which comes from camera shakes, slower shuttle speed, too much compression, trying to zoom in too much.
To the OP: Jon, I think in my option you did focus correctly (because your camera told you), but when you try to enlarge the image, the more you zoom in, the more blur it looks, it is not a case of focusing, it is a case of pixels. No matter how high the MP the camera have, the more you zoom in, the more you enlarge, the more likely you'll start seeing a blurred image. It's like buy a newspaper, use a microscope to look at the photos, and you'll notice that instead of seeing a clear face, you're looking at dots of dried ink. I would stay you have enlarged too far, so it would seems that's as far as you can get, specially as your EXIF data did mention "Sharpness: Soft" and that the object you took photo of is very small.
Also, I can't tell from the EXIF data, I'm not sure what level of picture quality setting you have it on, most cameras will say something like FINE, NORMAL, BASIC, or similar, if you set to lower quality in order to squeeze more number of images to memory card, you are compressing the images too much, some details will have been lost, hence the more you zoom in, the sooner the blurred look start to show, but setting to higher quality, althought lower the number of photos you can save to memory card, would result in less compression, saving every pixels it can, so the more you zoom in, the later it will show blurred look.
Also, even if it is really a case of out of focus than blurred image, it is likely that you have took the photo far too close with the wrong sort of lens, micro lens would be better suited to this kind of close up, the closer you take photos with any lens, the more depth of field you lose so it becomes more tricky to try to get pin-sharp focus on a very small object at very close range unless you use micro lens, most cameras and lens will have a minimum focusing range, same as your eyes do, you can't focus very well when you hold an object right againt your eyes.
It could also be camera shake, but I don't think trying to use a minimum shutter speed and not going any lower will help, what really would help the best is to use a tripod. What if this small object the OP spoke of happens to be a flower outdoor? The flower's movement in the wind, hand-holding a camera, minimum speed, all add up to more higher chances of blurred image, so a tripod to hold the camera steady and a faster shutter speed will help to freeze the image.
Well, it would help if we could look at your photo so we would know how to offer better advice.
