Transfer iPad photos to Mac?

Question

I went through the failure of two hard drives, on which I put my iPhoto Library. I saved some of the pictures, but I still have the full library on the iPad and iPhone. I can Beam the photos to other iOS devices, but how can I get the full library from my iOS devices to my Mac? I'm afraid to attach my iTunes/iPhoto to the Mac because I'm afraid the computer will erase things and not transfer the extra hundreds of photos to my Mac's iPhoto Library.

Answer 1

To keep iTunes from erasing synced photos on your iPad, set the option  “Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically.”
In iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences.
Click Devices.
Select “Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically.”
Only then connect your iPad to import photos to iPhoto.
But there is one big problem -  if the photos you are now having only on your iPad have been synced from your Mac, you cannot transfer them back the same way. Syncing from your iPhoto library to handheld devices is only one-way. Only photos in the Camera roll can be imported to iPhoto, when you connect the iPad via USB.
You will have to save the synced photos to the Camera Roll, before you can download them.
Send photos to iPhoto or Aperture on your computer
Tap a photo, album, or event and tap > Camera Roll.
Tap Selected, or change the photos you want to import:
Select different photos: Tap Choose Photos, tap up to 100 photos, and tap Next.
Select a range of photos: Tap Choose Photos, tap Range, tap the first and last photos in the range, and tap Next.
Select all the photos in an album or event: Tap All.
Tap Done.
Connect your iOS device to your computer.
Open iPhoto or Aperture, and import your photos from the Camera Roll on your device.
if you have iPhoto on your iPad you can transfer directly using iTunes as described here:
http://help.apple.com/iphoto/iphone/2.0/?handbuch#blnkee26bc1f
Save photos to your computer using iTunes
Connect your iOS device to your computer.
Tap a photo, album, event, web journal, or slideshow and tap > iTunes.
Tap Selected, or change the photos you want to save (if you are saving a slideshow skip to step 4):
Select different photos: Tap Choose Photos, tap one or more photos, and tap Next.
Select a range of photos: Tap Choose Photos, tap Range, tap the first and last photos in the range, and tap Next.
Select all the photos in an album or event: Tap All.
In iTunes, click the button for your device and click Apps at the top of the window.
Below File Sharing, select iPhoto (in Apps).
Select the Shared Photos folder under iPhoto Documents.
Click Save To and select the location on your computer where you want to save the items.
To view your photos, go to the Finder and look in the location you selected above.