Pros: good scan quality, ease of use/user friendliness, comes with accessory
Cons: price, support/warranty, accessory not that useful.
The bottom line: Stay away... go with something else for 35mm and slide scanning... like a high end scanner or a dedicated 35mm scanner.
I just reviewed the 4400 ScanJet... what is the 4470? A newer and improved model? Well... in a way it is. The 4470 package is the 4400 scanner with a light transparency adapter... that's all. That's what costs an additional $50 to the MRSP. Is it worth it?

No... who the heck cares about the transparency adapter

The transparency adapter is a small unit that connects to the back of the 4400 scanner to receive commands and power for the unit. It is only large enough to scan slides, 35mm negative film, and very small transparencies. For $50 dollars... this is a waste of money to me. The transparency adapter works well but this isn't the best scanner for detailed work... far from it. For scanning 35mm film, I preferred a 2400 dpi level scanner (maybe I'm spoiled by the ScanJet 7450 and other scanners). On the 4400 series scanner, its good for basic 35mm negative/slide archiving. However, if you scan the actual photos on the scanner, I felt that the quality for much improved from scanning the 35mm negatives.

Repeating most of the 4400 ScanJet review

Well, what follows is much of the review of the 4400 since that is more or less the base unit in the package. No use trying to spice up the scanner review into something it is not... If you've read my 4400 review already there are only a few surprises (like the LCD panel and buttons), just skip to the Overview section. The only major differences here are the LCD panel on the 4470 model which has its advantages.

The 4470 is an upgrade to the 4300 series ScanJet while the 4400 is the most likely replacement for the 3400 series ScanJet. It is now sold for the low under $150 price range, an affordable price point for many people. The major difference between the 4400 and 4470 is the inclusion of active transparency unit and costs an additional $50 bucks.

Details... What's the deal man?

The 4470 is a letter sized flatbed scanner. You put the page on top of the glass and scan the page. The glass is 8.5 x 11.7 so it's just a bit larger than letter sized. The units overall dimensions are 12W x 19.9D x 2.9H in inches. It's not a large footprint as Hewlett Packard scanners go but it is a lot larger than many similarly equiped scanners from Epson and Canon (well mostly Canon scanners). The unit is still 6.3 lbs... a bit heavy but not overly so. The 4470 unit looks like a typical scanner with several large buttons and a few smaller buttons on the front of the unit and the 2 digit LCD display.

This scanner is capable of 1200 dpi scans at 48-bit color. The scanner is 1200 x 1200 optical and hardware dpi. This means that color reproduction is very, very good and image quality and sharpness will be respectable to good. In fact, the scan quality seemed to match the ScanJet 5200 and 5300 series scanners but with much better color reproduction. The unit is rated by HP to have a preview scan time of 13 secs and a B&W drawing scan done in under 35 secs. A 4x6 color photo supposedly takes under 40 secs to be scanned. It takes a little longer than that however... you computer also plays a part in that. A parallel connection also slows down the process by a great deal. If using a USB connection, many USB devices on the computer also slow down the process of scanning to computer. The scan engine is the same between the 4400 and 4470 unit.

As usual, the 4470 comes with the latest HP PrecisionScan Pro software which is very user friendly but still not as powerful as other packaged scanner programs (the amount of user customizability is still limited). Either way, the PrecisionPro software is more than adequate for the novice to intermediate user. The other software included are:

Standard for PCs and Macs: HP Scanjet Copy Utility, and HP Share-to-Web software.

For PC: IRIS OCR, Arcsoft PhotoImpressions, Arcsoft PhotoFantasy, Trellix TrellixWeb Express, eFax.com, HP Print Creator, ACD Systems ACDsee.

For Mac: IRIS ReadIRIS OCR, Arcsoft PhotoImpressions, Arcsoft PhotoFantasy, Trellix TrellixWeb Express, Arcsoft Photo Printer 2000, ACD Systems ACDsee

To be honest, I use my own software than the prepackaged software. Adobe Photoshop kicks the butt of any of these programs anyday!

The five buttons are shortcuts to scanning, copy, e-mail, web, and photo reprint (for an album or multiple photo prints on a page). They can be reprogrammed through the provided software. A few smaller buttons access "options", "cancel", a rocker to increase or decrease copy number in copy mode. Don't forget the "powersave" button (which is useless since the scanner powers down after a few minutes of disuse). The rocker allows size enhancement and reduction in copier mode. By the way, copier mode does not mean you can copy images from your scanner directly to the printer without a computer!

Installation of the printer is a snap. A large poster is provided by HP so that almost anyone can install the scanner without any hassles (almost idiotproof... then again). Attach the power cable, decide if you want parallel (NT/95 users) or USB (everyone else), and put the CD-ROM in for the software installation. It should be quick and relatively painless.

Overall of the ScanJet 4470 package

No way Jose... stay away! The extra $50 to get a small transparency adapter and a few options that were controlled by the driver or through software programs isn't worth the money in my opinion. A dedicated 35mm negative/slide scanner may be a better answer or to go with a higher end scanner. While the 4400 is a good scanner overall, it is not a professional level scanner or a scanner good for small detail work. I'll recommend the 4400 ScanJet but not the 4470 ScanJet.

By the way, why was the support/warranty a con. Like many low priced scanners, HP covers the scanner for 90 days only. No toll free phone support either. The only thing free is internet support.

You can check out my profile page for my other scanner reviews.