I will be bringing my I Pad2 with me to Paris and would like to take a few nice pics with it as it does take nice pictures and I can immediately e-mail them back home to the family. I have an iPad carrying purse with shoulder strap and would be careful what areas I use it in so is it a safe thing to do as I know thieves like electronics.

I used mine in Italy and Prague last fall. The pics are great for posting on FB or sending to family back home, but if you want the best pics for posterity, you'll also want a real camera.

I always bring my iPad on trips, but I take the pictures with my camera, then download them in the iPad once I am at the hotel/apartment and send them from there... It's another option. It also makes for a good backup.

Do what jojonana does: use a regular camera. Buy a reader for SD cards (most likely - check what your camera uses) that plugs into the ipad (this is a Belkin accessory, other makers possible). Sets up in seconds and uploads the SD contents to the ipad immediately.

Would NOT take the ipad out with me. We left ours in apt in Barcelona all the time.

What BigRuss said. My strapping 6'2" nephew was in Paris and had his iphone stolen by three guys, one of whom had a knife.

I have taken photos on my ipad 2, but only because I didn't have my dlsr with me at the time. No comparison in quality.

Why don't you try it out at home so see if you can really use it in the way you envisioned?

Try taking a facade of a building but back up no more than 50ft from the building to simulate tightly spaced streets or piazzas. Take picture of the interior of a dark church without flash. Try taking landscape on a bright sunny day to see if you can see the screen to compose the picture. Try taking out your iPad2 in a crowded restaurant to capture the festivities. Are these shots really practical with an iPad2?

We are bring a good camera also..it's just that I wanted a few shots to send home to kids....maybe a shot from Trocadero of Eiffel Tower or flowers in Tuilleries or Lucembourg Garden....would never bring it in a restaurant to take food shots or festivities. if I did not feel secure in my surroundings I would not use it so it was just a thought.

I wouldn't haul out an iPad for a photo... as others have said... too tempting a target and too easy for someone to grab and run.

I bought a gadget such as Russ describes for loading pics onto my wife's iPad... got it on eBay for 5 bucks. I've also seen SD cards with built in wifi that can send to your device of choice. Take your shots to send home with your camera, load onto the iPad when you get back to your hotel and the folks at home will never know you didn't send them right from the Trocadero with the iPad anyway! ;^) We'll never tell...

I think it is a little backward to use a relatively large iPad to take photos in most situations. A camera (or phone) is often better and more convenient.

I do wonder what percentage of iPad pic takers are just trying to show off their new toy.

The ipad can take nice photos, but it's not a camera, and it's pretty unwise to walk around with it in front of your face all the time in a city like Paris. Even an iphone makes you a magnet for thieves on the street. Cameras are smaller, take better pictures, and don't make you as much of a target. It's easy enough to load pics onto your ipad when you get back to the hotel room.

On the otherhand...I found it invaluable to use for GPS, for linking to websites to check out menus on the fly, and even for some audio tours of various sites. We don't have a smart phone, which others use for these purposes. I found it no more difficult to carry around than a guide book.

When we were driving around Umbria, it was great to mark where we parked, so that we could get back to the car easily after checking out a new (to us) town.

Not so sure you would need it for Paris for as many reasons, but we've been there often enough that I don't think we could get terribly lost. Still, it was helpful to find the nearest bus stops in Rome, though, so maybe...

I am finding it helpful to learn the bus routes so when we get there it will be easy to check out which bus to use each day.....so ok will take some shots from balcony of apartment where the IPad will be safe and no not using it to show off a new toy as it is a year old and now that IPad3is out mine is probably obsolete!

I, as a non IPAD owner, but having seen it joined at the hip of family members, just wonder, WHY. Do you have to be SO in touch with every person at the time--remember there is a time difference so if you sent it the next day, it would be better. Carrying that around all day--lifting it to the sky to take the picture, etc. etc.
It may be necessary for a 12 step program but I am sure you can conquer it. VERY tongue in cheek--but do think about it.

Agree with Gretchen, as I frequently do. It just seems like it would be so bloody AWKWARD. I mean, picture yourself traipsing around a foreign capital, holding that pad up to take pictures with? And posing a huge risk of theft? NO. I don't think so.

And nobody anywhere needs "real time" photos of you or tourist sites. There's a time difference, as noted, and they can wait. Not to mention they can go online and see thousands of pictures of everything you'll be snapping anyway.

Be safe. Be smart. Use a camera.

I brought my iPad2 to Italy last spring, but I did not use it to take pictures. I find I have more control using my small camera. Every day, when we returned to our hotel before dinner, I would use the Apple camera connection kit ($27) to download pictures from the camera to the iPad - it took less than a minute. Then I would watch a slideshow of that day's pics while listening to Andrea Boccelli (on the iPad). Finally, I would email pics to everyone back home from the iPad - absolutely simple! Each hotel room had a safe and that is where I left the iPad. Have fun!