Pentax S30 distortion and general quality?

I recently bought a Pentax S30 and have been trying it out, does the picture below seem distorted at all?

http://138.251.10.18/~lumo/pics/IMGP0097.JPG


To me the horizon seems to be suffering from a cats eye lens sort of effect, falling off quite sharply at the edges.

Also the focus doesn’t seem to be that good at the edges. That was taken on max resolution and quality and on landscape setting. It was quite a cloudy dim day which didn’t help things.

What’s the general opinion of the S30?

You are always likely to get this kind of barrel distortion with a relatively cheap zoom lens at its widest angle. Point and shoot cameras do not tend to have lenses of great quality, and the zoom range is often extreme.

If you shoot with the horizon closer to the centre you will minimise the effect, although I concede that will not necessarily help the composition.

Dull days are the enemy of photography. You have found a nice scene; go back to it if you can in the early morning or the evening on a sunny day and shoot it again. You'll be surprised at the difference.