iOS 7 - stop Photos app from automatically zooming to fill screen while viewing photos?

It is an iOS7 issue, and it's a nightmare, I initially got an ipad and iphone because it allows to show fairly high quality images, which as a photographer is quite important, but since it now crops the image through filling the screen no matter what it renders both devices somewhat useless for that purpose. While it simply needs a software fix Apple don't seem to be interested in providing this. I may have to replcae ipad and iphone with a Samsung device that allows me to present my work.

Get your arse in gear Apple.

I realize this is a pretty old post, but I was searching for an answer to this since it's still happening as of iOS 9.2 (Dec 2015). Here's what's happening: when the image initially loads, the phone is attempting to make up the black bars and zooms in just enough to do so. So depending on the image shape, it's zoomed at some random %.

What I do right now is, rather than pinch to zoom out, which almost always results in the screen dropping back to thumbnail view, is to double tap the image, which does a maximum zoom (in), then double tap again, which does a minimum zoom (out). The second set of taps gives you the full view with black bars.

Super. Annoying.

Exact same problem as you described. It is beyond annoying to double-tap twice just to see the whole picture I took. What's worse is there is no way our friends, family, customers, etc will understand to do this so as they are going through looking at our shared pics, they aren't seeing what I actually shot. I have owned just about every iPhone model and can confirm it exists on everything. Certainly Apple could set a switch to "Turn off auto-zoom in Photos"??? And if there isn't a switch, just create it already. Current version is iPhone 6S+ with iOS 9.3.1.

Just want to add my voice to the plees for an option to switch this super annoying behaviour off. A couple of versions of iOS ago they pinch to zoom out action stopped working and I had to stop viewing photos on my iPhone altogether. This tends not to happen for 4:3 aspect ratio photos (like those shot on the iPhone itself), but is always happens for 3:2 ration photos, like those taken on most DSLRs. So this behavior is most annoying for serious photographers who do not want there carefully composed photos ruined by this behaviour!

I didn't know about the quadruple tap trick mentioned by mrbofus, so many thanks for that... this behaviour is still super nasty, but at least I can still view my 3:2 ration photos as intended.

I as a photographer want to use my EXPENSIVE iPad Pro to showcase my work, and it's so, so annoying that the photos app automatically zooms in on standard 2:3 photos. At least give us the option to turn it of for those who care!

Unfortunately there are no real alternatives, as other portfolio apps always downsample photos when you import them. Which ***** when you want to zoom in to a 100% with a double tab.....

Verdict:

Apple hardware... Amazing!
Apple software... Frustrating!