Foreword:

Canon’s flagship PowerShot compact camera, the SD970 packs an amazing amount of punch in its metal-cased body with great image quality, HD video capture and an extremely intuitive user interface. At 2.24in×3.73in×1.04in and weighing in at 6.6 ounces, the SD970 is a mini compact camera is well designed with 5x optical zoom and a focal range of 6.6mm – 33.0mm

+Ves:

• The brilliant 3in screen allows for 461,000 dots resulting in a sharp, high contrast screen whose only competition within the compact camera industry is the Samsung TL320’s AMOLED screen or the Sony Cybershot DSC-T900’s ultra-high resolution screen.
• The UI is modern, attractive, speedy and a pleasure to use. Playback looks akin to iTunes’ Cover Flow. With large, easy-to-read fonts it is a great supplement to the images taken by the camera.
• HD video capture at 720p30 (1280×720 at 30 progressive frames per second) has been implemented amazingly in this compact camera. Though you cannot use optical zoom while shooting, the videos saved as .MOV files are definitely gorgeous when played back.
• The shooting itself is fast at an average shot to shot lag of 2.13 seconds. From off to shot takes about 0.03 seconds more. Shutter lag tests reported an excellent 0.46 second lag between shutter press and image capture.
• Shots are crisp and even low light conditions do not show up much noise. Even at high ISO levels (800 to 1600) the noise was reduced to a great extent.
• HDMI-out and mini HDMI-out present in the camera go a great deal in showing how well the video and image output of the camera is by allowing you to directly connect the camera to your HDTV with any standard HDMI-out cable.
• The center of the frame captured an impressive 2397 lines per picture height, though this dropped by 33 percent towards the edges – acceptable for the class of cameras that the SD970 belongs to.

-Ves:

• No manual shutter or aperture options (except in Night mode which allows you to set shutter speed up to a certain limit).
• At widest angle positions, the camera showed some barrel distortion.

Final Word:

Though the lack of manual controls and the high cost ($349) may deter many buyers, this camera is definitely one of the best compact point-and-shoots available in the market with a great LCD screen and top-notch performance. The resolution and the color capture are certainly the best around for the price and the 5x optical zoom is not bad either. If you have the money, and want a compact, this is the one to go for. The killer HD video capture is certain to have your video needs fulfilled as well as image capture needs.