Too bad it isn't an interchangeable lens

Yep, that and somewhat slow autofocus are the only things I think they could have done better considering that the camera was introduced 3+ years ago.

they all look like someone accidentally set the JPEG quality level about 2 orders of magnitude too low. Is this one any better

The highest quality JPEG is pretty decent and there is a super high quality mode that produces an uncompressed image (a TIFF I believe, I generally just use the highest JPEG). The images it produces are a little flat and look a lot better after being sharpened in photoshop or a similar tool. Supposedly it is better to have a flat image than an overly sharp one as you can extrapolate sharpness but not missing detail.

Oh, I also love the battery on this camera. It is a version of the smart batteries sony uses in their camcorders. It will tell you exactly how much battery life is left and is generally good for over 100 pictures if you are not using the flash or LCD constantly.

-Mike