Summary: Unless you are planning to do hundreds of professional scans a day, this is an excellent option for multi-function scanning of negatives, film positives, and flat documents. The software is very workable, especially in professional mode where you have good flexibility to make corrections (color, density, etc.) in the initial scan. I especially like the trays to hold film; these are very easy to use.
I bring images right into Photoshop CS, and this is also seemless. The 4490 is no louder than most scanners I have used. It does take up a bit of real estate on the desk compared to some of the slim scanners on the market, but that is a small price to pay for the excellent function this offers.
Within this price range, this is as good or better than any other scanner offering the ability to scan film positives and negatives.

Summary: I have been working with the machine now for three months, and have had the opportunity to go through most of its functions. I was a bit trepidatious in the beginning. Having read all the reviews, I felt there must be a lot of defective units out there. But then, I thought, those who’d been stuck with one would be the most motivated to write. Mine has functioned perfectly from Day One. Long may this continue. I bought it to use mostly as a photo scanner, to scan my lifetime collection of color slides. It does a superb job at this. The scans are usually indistinguishable from the original slides, with identical color values. The only exceptions are slides with flaws. For instance, slides with very high contrast may not scan accurately—the machine may cut off part of the picture. Often, rotating the slide and trying again produces a better result. Slides where the subject is backlit, even slightly, will have this flaw magnified. However, this usually can be fixed with the included software, how well depending on how much time one wishes to spend on an individual shot. Obviously, flawed photos aren't often those I'm most interested in preserving in the first place.
I compared scanning photo prints with scans of the negatives from which they were printed. The latter were invariably superior: clearer, and with better color. This, I judge, is not the machine’s fault, but the photo printer’s. In this instance, the scans were superior to the prints.
I did not get particularly good results scanning newspaper clippings or B&W line art using the machine’s settings for those items. The print was often unreadable and the line art incoherent. However, scanning them again as photographs produced much better results.
I was thrilled to discover I now had fax capability simply by using the “Copy” button (printer icon) and forwarding the scan to my computer’s fax utility. Sending multi-page faxes took a bit more headscratching. One must first make a multi-page PDF, then send that to fax.
Altogether, I think this $200 Epson has so far proved a thoroughly worthwhile purchase for a home hobbyist like me. If it breaks, maybe I’ll go for the $500 one. Or even the $700 one. Maybe.

Summary: Bought this scanner only yesterday and have scanned an uncanny number of pictures already. Out of the box the unit is easy to use. For the price (231 minus a $50 mail in rebate) I expected it to be a bit more sturdy but feels a bit flimsy. Have tried to scan some negatives and slides too and had no problems although without a self feeder it is a bit teedious, but used to that already. Overall I love the machine so far and will update if I have any troubles with it.