Photos are distorted when they are downloaded off my camera

I had a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F717 and although the photos looked fine when I viewed them on the camera, once I downloaded them to my computer they were distorted (sort of stretched out, width-wise). I thought it was my camera! So, I sold it. Now I have a Canon 790 IS, and again, it's doing the same exact thing. The photos look fine when I view them on the camera, but once I plug the camera up to my computer, and then view them on my computer, they are stretched out. It doesn't matter if I view the photo using Zoom Browser EX (Canon's software), go directly through Windows Explorer, or Photoshop... they always look stretched out. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? Movies do the same thing.

If anyone can offer advice on how to fix this issue I would really appreciate it! Thank you!

It's a setting (probably in your monitor software) that makes normal size images fit your wide screen. - TF

Yes, what's your screen aspect resolution?

Thank you for the responses. The resolution of my monitor is 1024x768.

What I've been having to do is download the images, change the image size (decrease width by about 10%), save. If I save it without doing those things and then burn them on a cd to take somewhere to have them printed, the photos appear stretched out. Same thing if I download the pic off the camera and then try to email it to someone- they're like, "why are you so wide?"

And the thing is, as much of a pain in the butt that it is, I was ok with it, figuring that's just what I would have to do. Needless to say it makes me not want to take many photos. But I noticed it's doing it with the videos I take (same camera), and I don't even know how to go about changing those.

Are you using Vista on your computer? Jeff

Never mind answering me because I was thinking about how a background picture on you desktop can be stretched but this is something different.

First, it is not normal and there is a fix. Second, got me on what that fix is.

Give us as much info as you can. Settings on the camera. How you download (physically and software). All the software you use. Brand and model of monitor. Exact process that fixes it (decrease width). Does it fill the whole screen both stretched and fixed? What if you change the window size? What brand/model of computer and operating system? Can you post and example? - TF

If you have a widescreen monitor, using 1024x768 should be leaving margins on the left and right. It could still be that your monitor is widescreen, and it's simply stretching the 1024x768 resolution to fit.

If you have 1024x640 available, try switching to that resolution to see if it clears the distortion. Any of these other rsolutions would eliminate stretching on the widescreen also:

1152x720
1280x800
1680x1050

Hope this helps,

- Joe U.

Ahh I was wondering when someone would point out the resolution.

Good call medley - forgot one though - 1440x900.

There may also however be a problem with the display driver, and the video output cannot match the monitors native resolution. In this case the settings wont see the proper resolution anyway.

Find out your video card model number, it should show it in device manager under 'display'. Look that up and then go to the MFR's web site (ex: ati.amd.com), look up your models driver.

If your card is something like, say a Radeon 7000, unfortunately Win7 does not support that card and can only provide it with low performance generic drivers, that means also only 4:3 aspect and limited resolution. You may need a new video card.