To me, the first of the pictures looks fine. The second one may be a little
bit dark. Have you upgraded to the latest canon firmware (1.0.2)? That was
in part designed to cure darkness with some lenses. Are you viewing the
pictures on a decent monitor?

Mike Bernstein

img_000030.jpg looks just fine to me.  img_0036.jpg is, of course,
underexposed.  Because a camera wants to make your picture average out to
grey, the more flat, stark white areas you have in your photo (like walls),
the more it will try to underexpose - it's the same problem that bites so
many people that try to take pictures in a snowy setting.  Using the
exposure compensation can help.

 That being said, my Rebel XT under similar situations doesn't
underexpose - or if it does, not *nearly* like that.  Looking at the
histogram for that picture, that's more what you'd expect from a completely
bright white snow-scene, not from an indoor setting with the good blend of
colors and intensity that you have in that shot.  I'd call Canon and speak
to your vendor about trading in your camera.

 As I've said before, I received a Digital Rebel that would GROSSLY
underexpose every scene when a flash was used, no matter the subject matter
or flash that was used.  Other DRs that I used performed great.  It's not
undeard of for problems to exist with light metering, be it the primary
metering or TTL.

steve

  First, the area covered by the two pictures is different, if taken from  
the same spot then the longer lens on the second camera is going to lose  
some light. Also, keep in mind that a P & S lens is usually pretty wide  
and therefore collects quite a bit of light. That said the second shot  
does appear a bit dark to me, I would upgrade the firmware if you haven't  
and try a second set of shots trying to encompass the same area of view,  
and keep in mind that digital zoom doesn't count. Just some random  
thoughts.

Kelly