Q: copy pictures from my iMac to my ipad

Try the app "transfer".  It is a blue app that has a picture of a two photos

Oh I'm sorry I thought the app was free.  I dont know of any other solution without using photo stream or syncing ( just so you know you are able to choose the events you sync)

You can certainly e mail them for free, or opena free Dropbox account.   Out of curiosity, why not simply sync.  Free and easy.

You can use a USB flash drive & the camera connection kit.

Plug the USB flash drive into your computer & create a new folder titled DCIM. Then put your movie/photo files into the folder. The files must have a filename with exactly 8 characters long (no spaces) plus the file extension (i.e., my-movie.mov; DSCN0164.jpg).

Now plug the flash drive into the iPad using the camera connection kit. Open the Photos app, the movie/photo files should appear & you can import. (You can not export using the camera connection kit.)

 Cheers, Tom

The sync method, by definition, means you replace all the pics, with all that you want.  Mentally, you are using your computer as the master, and just copying down what you want.  So if you really only want to just add specific pics, you cannot do that with the sync option. Although, once you get used to the routine, it is virtually the same.  Assuming you want to add 1 picture, and assuming you have the photo section set up as you left it last time, you simply x the additional picture and push sync.  It recopies everything that was there, plus the new picture.

But I can understand if you want to add and remove certain pics on the fly that you need a different solution.  And Dropbox works great.

There are other options that might not fit into your free approach, but when you get a buck or two left over, take a look at photosync.  I use that all the time to send picts to and from the pad, phone and desktop.  Buy the app once and you can install it on any I devices.  There is a desktop app as well, I think it is free, but not real sure, as it has been a year since I got it.   And if you are using a brand x phone, there is a version for android.  And they all talk to each other.      Not free, but a worthwhile couple of bucks if you really want an easy way to flip pictures around.  ( there are other similar apps, this just happens to be the one I am familiar with)

The trick is to create albums of your choice, such as Vacations, birthdays, Christmas, grandkids, beach etc in iPhoto. Then you drag selected pictures from anywhere in iPhoto to the approiate new albums to create a selectable group of pictures. Then connect your iPad via USB through iTunes. Go to sync and only select the new albums you have just created. Uncheck all others such as iPhoto, last import etc. Now do a manual sync and only your new albums will move to your iPad.

I see that the topic has changed somewhat. All pictures and videos that you take with your iPad will automatically be placed into an album called "Camera Roll" on your IPad by default.

Connect your iPad. Launch iTunes. Click on the iPad device name. Look right to Photos on top menu. Check Sync Photos from <and pick the folder containing your photos>. Check All folders radio button. Click Sync and your photos will be copied to your iPad.

I have the same problem ... I cannot use sync because it destroys the sort order I have established in iPhoto.  Have tried to sync, have tried to export to a folder. The folder export put the photos in the sort order I want but when I transfer to iPad - once again they are scrambled.  Photos that have names like pix-1, pix-2, ... appear all over the album.  I have about 400 pix I want on the pad.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4221?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

The sort of pictures synced is by last modified. With 400 pictures to view, then just create seperate folders such as Alaska Cruise, grandkids, Christmas 2012, car show etc. This will greatly limit the sync sort issue and keep similar pictures together in their respective albums for later viewing on your iPad.