Why I hate the new Instagram Stories camera

UPDATE: June 10, 2019, 2:06 p.m. EDT The latest update (version 97.0) for Instagram on iOS has fixed the Instagram Stories camera. The original story follows below.

Instagram Stories is broken... again.

In April, Facebook gave Instagram Stories a makeover that makes it more like Facebook. With the new update, Stories no longer need to be photo- or video-based. Instead, you can do things like ask questions, and create polls, quizzes, countdowns, and text-based posts.

I'm all for these new additions. I like the tweaks to the Instagram Stories camera that make it easier to quickly swipe to create things like Boomerangs, Superzooms, and apply camera filters.

But there's one glaring problem with the Instagram Stories camera: the viewfinder is busted and it needs to be fixed, like ASAP.

SEE ALSO: Here's how to add captions to your Instagram Stories to make them more accessible

Look, I'm no app designer, but as the first person to "break" Instagram Stories by posting too many clips in 24 hours, I know the format pretty well. As a power user, I can't stay silent on the crappy new Instagram Stories camera anymore.

See, a camera viewfinder has a single purpose, and that's to help you frame a photo or video. It shows you what isand isn'tin the frame. That's it.

A good viewfinder captures exactly what you want framed — no more, no less. However, a bad viewfinder, like the new Instagram Stories camera, captures more than you intend to.

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Prior to the new update, the Instagram Stories camera opened up into a viewfinder with a clear, visible window with a 16:9 aspect ratio. You could see exactly what was in the frame.

But on the new Stories camera, the viewfinder obscures a large chunk of the bottom with a black, concave-shaped carousel for all the various camera modes and filters. The problem is that it blocks a significant portion of what the camera's capturing.

What you see is notwhat you get. Take a look at these screenshots. Here, I'm thinking I'm gonna take a cool selfie covering everything below my nose. What I actually get after pressing the shutter button is a selfie withmy mouth. That's notwhat should happen and not what I wanted.

Okay, gonna take a cool selfie blocking my mouth. Credit: raymond wong / mashable Wait...why is my mouth in the shot?! Credit: RAYMOND WONG / MASHABLE

In the below images, the screenshot on the left shows the new Instagram Stories camera viewfinder as seen on my iPhone XS. I was hoping to capture a pic of onlymy sneakers on the edge of the staircase. Instead, the camera snapped a photo with my legs in it.

Just taking a fun shot of my kicks on the staircase. Credit: RAYMOND WONG / MASHABLE Wait, I didn't want my legs in there... Credit: Raymond wong / mashable

I really don't want to get graphic, but this is how accidental dick pics happen. You think you're taking a photo of your muscular legs to show off on Instagram Stories and don't bother to double-check. And then — boom — next thing you know, all your followers have seen your junk because the Instagram camera over-captured. (This didn't really happen to me, but I'm using it as an extremeexample of what couldhappen in a nightmare scenario.)

The fix to this problem is really simple: define the bottom edge of the viewfinder again like it was on the old version of the Instagram Stories camera.

Instagram can still keep the carousel, but just make it clear where the edges of the viewfinder are again. Reduce the opacity of the black carousel the same way it is on devices with 16:9 aspect ratio displays.

I don't have the same framing issues on an iPhone 8. Credit: raymond wong /mashable

I realize this is a first-world complaint. Go ahead and @ me for bitching about the new Instagram Stories viewfinder, but as any photographer or video producer will tell you, precision is important.

No, really, I dareyou to go and tell someone like a foodie Instagrammer that an overhead photo of their meal with an unintentional view of their feet standing on top of a chair isn't a big deal. It's a big effing deal that what you see in the camera viewfinder isn't what you get.

Maybe it's not an issue for amateurs who are used to farting out any ol' photo or video, but for people who docare about pixel-perfect content, Instagram needs to fix this problem.

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