I am very pleased with the product. I use it for scanning both opaque graphics and 35mm and 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 transparencies. I never use the holders for the mounted transparencies allowing me to scan more at once. I then separate them with the cropping tool in Photoshop. HINT! If the first slide in the row is too close to the top of the light slot the scanner will treat the material as opaque.

The Epson Perfection 4490 produces excellent scans of both opaque material, such as post cards and photos, and transparent material, such as slides and negatives. I was even able to scan 2.25" x 2.25" (120) mounted Ektachrome slides by removing the gate that holds medium format film in place. The gate is easy to remove and replace. This was important to me as I have many medium format slides in need of saving to digital format. The picture post card I scanned showed no moire artifacts and captured the colors perfectly.

The OCR software seemed limited and became confused if anything outside of standard text was on the page. It did, however, recognize a letterhead logo and captured it as a picture. When a poor quality carbon copy was scanned I spent more time correcting the errors than I would have spent typing it all myself in the first place.

Heads up on the advertisement that Photoshop Elements is bundled with the scanner! The included version is Photoshop Elements 2. That is a pretty old version since versions 6 and 7 are now out.

Relatively quick scanning original images and slides, accurately and sharply; easy to use. One drawback: no capability for scanning transparencies.

Had a bunch of old, worn and faded photos to scan. It allows you to scan multiple photos and a time while creating separate files for each! Such a time saver. Also color corrects faded worn photos beautifully! Simple to use. Very pleased!

I use my Epson 4490 to scan color images, so I can't speak for the photographic capabilities. This is my second Epson (I've used Canon in the past) and I am sold on its ease of use, its durability and its superb color reproduction.