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Do all Canon digital compact cameras have the same issue with 'pincushioning' and 'barreling'?

I just upgraded to a Canon SD970 IS camera, from a Powershot SD400. I noticed, in the reviews, that the lens in the new camera has an issue with 'pincushioning' in zoom modes, and 'barreling' in wide angle mode. This is, for those unfamiliar, an overall distortion of the image, either a bulging out or pinching in. My question is, are all Canon SD Powershot cameras about equal with regard to this lens issue?

Public Comments

1. Actually, almost all point-and-shoot cameras (and many SLR lenses) have this problem to varying degrees. In most cases people will never notice, but it can be more obvious on wide angle & longer zoom lenses (especially with straight lines, like buildings). Trying to make more happen in the same tiny package is always going to cause some problem.
2. Nearly all point-n-shoot cameras have issues with barrel and pincushion distortion. But it really isn't the camera itself so much as it is the lens. And in that regard, the same problem can be seen with DSLR cameras depending on what lens you are using. Usually, a zoom lens is optimized to a particular focal length and at at that focal length, there will be little or no barrel or pincushion distortion. More often than not, the wider the zoom range, the more distortion you'll see at the wide and telephoto ends of the zoom range. Distortion is often readily corrected with photo-editing software but, you can also address some of these distortion issues with your shooting technique. My ultra-wide zooms and primes have a good deal of barrel distortion. When shooting landscapes or archecture with those lenses, I shoot at distances and angles that make that distortion less noticeable. There are times however, that I've found I can use that same distortion to accentuate my subject by getting very close to the subject while including enough of the background to provide context.
3. Most zoom lenses suffer from this. It so happens that all compact cameras use zoom lenses. Most dSLR users also prefer using zoom lenses and want nothing less than super zooms. This is the reason that prime lenses, those that have no zoom, are far much better and more costly than zoom lenses. No. The issues appear in varying degrees depending on the lens structure itself.