Out of curiosity, why does it matter if it uses the cloud? When syncing photos it only does it over WIFI anyway.
EDIT:
I'm not sure if you're aware, but they have a Windows desktop control panel for iCloud. So it all shows up on my home pc automatically in the same folder just by walking into the house.
That said, I've had some issues where it doesn't sync all the photos, but its a new tech (for Apple) so I'm giving it leeway. Out of the 48 pics I've taken, 44 have auto synced now at this point.