Canon PowerShot SD970 IS

Shooting Modes (7.42)

The mode switch has three positions: movie mode to the left, Auto mode to the right, and the remaining shooting modes accessed from the middle position. In Auto mode, the camera attempts to identify the subject you’re shooting and sets itself accordingly to one of 18 preset modes. Subjects are categorized as people, close-ups or other, while lighting conditions are pegged as bright, blue skies, sunsets or dark. An icon indicating the camera’s selection appears on the LCD. In auto mode, the user can adjust image size and compression level, but all other manual settings are disabled.

Program autoexposure mode makes many more hands-on adjustments available, though it too can be used for simple point-and-shoot operation if you prefer. Program mode gives you control over ISO and white balance settings, exposure compensation and self-timer settings. You can also fiddle with color settings in interesting ways using the My Colors system (see Color Modes for details).

Auto Mode Features

There are two autofocus methods available, center or face detection. When using center focus, you can choose a normal or small autofocus frame, but can’t move the focus point around manually (you can always aim at the focus point you want and lock focus by holding the shutter down halfway, of course).

In addition to setting the focus, the face detection system will also set exposure (if set to evaluative metering) and white balance (if set to auto white balance) based on the subject it finds. The camera can identify up to 35 faces in a group, and if you don’t think it’s chosen the most important, you’re free to change the selection. Whether you or the camera selects the face, the system will attempt to follow it if it moves within the frame. We found the face detection system both quick and tenacious, tracking moving subjects effectively as long as their faces didn’t veer too far into profile.

An interesting wrinkle in both center focus and face detection modes is the AF-Point Zoom, which magnifies the middle of the frame after the camera confirms focus. It has some limited value if you’re trying to catch someone’s expression at just the right moment, but since there’s no manual focus adjustment available, it’s not a huge benefit, and does obscure some of the scene when it’s enabled.

There is a small red autofocus assist lamp on the left side of the lens.

The camera also has a blink detection feature, which analyzes a shot after you take it and plasters an unhappy face logo over the image review screen. Unlike Sony’s blink detection system, though, it doesn’t quickly and automatically take another shot, so there’s not much point.

The exposure compensation range is ±2 EV in 1/3 stop increments. For high-contrast shooting situations, the i-Contrast system expands dynamic range to maintain detail in shadow areas, though this can increase image noise. Dynamic range adjustment is also available as an in-camera editing option.

The usual three metering modes are available; evaluative (balanced exposure for the full frame), center-weighted (reads the whole screen but favors the middle in calculating an exposure) and spot (bases exposure only on the spot focus frame).

The maximum aperture with the lens at its widest angle is f/3.2, not terribly fast for a $400 camera, and at full zoom it’s f/5.7. The minimum aperture at wide angle is f/9, which isn’t going to provide a whole lot of depth of field for those scenic shots. At full zoom it’s a more workable f/16. There is no manual aperture control, though, a significant limitation.

Available shutter speeds range from 1/1600 second to 15 seconds, though the camera will only go beyond a 1-second exposure in the special Long Shutter shooting mode, where you get to choose from thirteen shutter speeds ranging from one second and 15. The camera sets the aperture automatically, and uses long exposure noise reduction (which takes roughly as long as the exposure itself to process) for shutter speeds slower than 1.3 seconds. You can only set the shutter speed for long exposure, though; in more common shooting situations there’s no manual shutter speed control.

The self-timer is unusually flexible. The shutter delay can be set anywhere from 1 second to 30 seconds, and the number of shots taken when the time expires can vary between 1 and 10. There’s also a face-recognition self-timer that will wait until an additional person enters the frame, then delay two seconds and take a sequence of three shots.

Scene Modes

Canon didn’t go overboard with its scene mode selection, but covers what most users will need: Portrait, Kids & Pets, Sunset, Beach, Foliage, Night Snapshot, Indoor, Fireworks, Aquarium, and Snow. There’s also an ISO 3200 scene mode, which increases ISO to 3200 to boost shutter speed and minimize camera shake, but drops resolution to 1600 × 1200.

Picture Effects (4.25)

The SD970 offers a generous selection color tweaking settings in the My Colors feature, as shown below. The names are all self-explanatory except for Positive Film, which tries to recreate the richer-than-real-life colors found in the days of Kodacolor print film.

If altering reality appeals to you, two color processing options may appeal. In Color Accent shooting mode, you choose a color in the scene you’re seeing and only that color will appear in the shot, with the rest of the world turned to black and white. There’s a similar Color Swap option, where you choose a color to swap out for another in the photo. In both cases, you can control how closely the colors in question have to match the original hue.

There’s also a panorama stitching option, which lets you take up to 26 (!) images for stitching later using the supplied computer software. A substantial portion of the previous image remains on screen when lining up the next shot, making the alignment straightforward. We prefer being able to do the stitching in the camera itself, though, and find it hard to believe that the Digic 4 processor wouldn’t be up to the job.

The Creative Light effect is a feature we expect you’ll use once in the life of the camera, if ever. It turns bright points of light in your photo into your choice of stars, hearts, starbursts, musical notes, double hearts or butterflies, at two different sizes. Zoom blur is another oddball, but marginally more interesting. It actually moves the lens during the exposure to produce an image that’s sharp in the middle and has the appearance of movement around it.

You can choose to have the camera imprint the date and time a photo was shot in the lower right corner. This becomes a permanent part of the image file.

Drive/Burst Mode (5.00)

Canon says you can expect approximately 1 shot per second in continuous shooting mode. There are no adjustments or options available, such as shooting faster at a lower resolution.

Shot to Shot (1.08)

In our testing, the camera is certainly no speed demon, but Canon does get credit for delivering the performance level promised, with 1.08 frames per second. And on the plus side, there is no limit to the number of frames you can shoot (beyond running out of battery life or memory card space).

In the comparison chart below, it’s worth noting that the Casio is designed and marketed largely on its high-speed photography capabilities.