Good to average speed for a consumer camera.

The Canon SD430 performs on the good side of average in terms of timing, starting with a fairly quick startup time. Shutter lag at wide angle and telephoto are both good, and "prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in a blazing lag time of only 0.073 second. Shot to shot cycle times are average, at about 1.78 seconds for large/superfine JPEGs, though the camera captures frames continuously, clearing the buffer after each shot. Continuous-mode speed is a little sluggish, at about 1.22 frames/second, though it too captures frames continuously without filling the buffer. The flash takes about six seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, about average for this class of camera. Connected to a computer, download speeds are quite fast at 1,342 KBytes per second. Bottom line, the PowerShot SD430 is responsive enough for most average shooting conditions, though not zippy enough to handle super fast action. Still, the SD430 should perform well enough for travel and family shots.

Battery
Very good battery life with the LCD on, Outstanding when LCD is switched off; WiFi not fully tested.

The Canon PowerShot SD430 uses a custom rechargeable LiIon battery for power. Because it doesn't have a standard external power connector, I wasn't able to conduct my usual power consumption tests on it.

Canon's own numbers for the Canon SD430 (based on the CIPA standard test procedure) indicate that you should be able to get about 150 shots from a freshly-charged battery with the LCD on, or 500 shots with the monitor off, half of those shots using the flash. They also claim a playback time of 3 hours. These numbers do not include power consumption with the WiFi feature used.

Storage
A 16MB SD/MMC card is included with the SD430.

I strongly recommend buying at least a 128MB card, preferably a 256MB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings.