Current build: Lens Debaser 1.72
Release date: October 7. 2026.
What’s new: Version 1.72 adds Final Framing: automatically crop unwanted lens-effect edges, fine-tune the crop with Adjust Auto, or use Manual Crop. Existing optical looks remain unchanged. Version 1.71 was never released to the public. Version 1.70 added wide-angle projection, resolution-relative effect sizing, a reorganized control layout and an expanded factory preset library with four new creative families. Version 1.69 added Optical Drift, three new drift presets, and updated documentation for shaping directionally imperfect bokeh. Version 1.68 added continuous field and aperture blur transitions that integrate edge softness and shaped bokeh more naturally, with especially improved stressed, body-camera and internal-field looks. Version 1.67 introduced AI-assisted optical-look authoring: create your own presets with the included, version-matched Preset Authoring Kit. It also added flexible prism distribution, causally ordered optics, expanded aperture and bokeh range, and clearer preset editing.
Summer time is… Hobby time, I guess? So I’ve indulged a bit in my other hobby again.
Introducing Lens Debaser OFX – Debase perfectly good optics in post.
A highly experimental AI slop OFX plugin for DaVinci Resolve, Apple Silicon (Metal) only for now, mimicking vintage optics kinks. At least that’s the idea…
Why? In 2026 „cine“ image acquisition is solved & commodified. Like Gerald Undone said, all cameras are good now. I say TOO good. So I made this for you to debase perfectly good optics in post – because perfect modern optics is for OnlyFans – not for ABSOLUTE CINEMA!
Let me show you its features & download installer package here
WARNING – This is highly experimental software made with AI. It might be full of lies, stolen IP, and broken dreams. It may explode your computer, ruin your projects, and wear your underwear when you’re not at home.
I made an original “Lens Debaser” for myself as a Power Grade some years ago because I love me some exotic dirty vintage optics – and perfect modern optics is for OnlyFans, not for ABSOLUTE CINEMA! However, as a rinky-dink amateur hobbyist digital cinematographer & color grader I just couldn’t keep justifying (to my wife, tbh) spending a fortune on more and more old glass, so I made myself a digital power grade that simulates a few of my favorite vintage optical “cine” kinks as a cope.
Now my old power grade still works, but it’s kind of a one-trick pony. So this new thing here came to be as I was thinking about how I could turn my old jury-rigged “Lens Debaser” Power Grade into something with a bit more features – like into a single plug-in or something. But I’m too old & lazy to start learning new SDK tricks just to program a little Resolve plugin for myself, so one night I happened to leisurely ask Altman’s golden doomsday calf if it could explain how the physics of chromatic aberration in vintage cinema optics work to me like I’m 5. Next thing I knew, we were knee-deep in the science of MTF, getting pitched on the virtues of Codex learning the OpenFX SDK for me, soon tokens started flying, context windows started breaking – and things got seriously out of hand from there…
As you can clearly see by the insane and depraved amount of possible optical parameters available by now.
Nobody noticed I made a completely entirely different first version of this thing, but that one turned out to be a piece of total junk unsustainable for further development – so I did a complete new refactoring, starting from scratch, using a brand new unadulterated context window actual references and science and shit. I guess the time wasted on the first version was just the ticket of admission to even barely start to scratch the surface of this domain. If anything, this new version is insanely faster when compared to my previous abject failure “preliminary study” – and it produces usable effects most of the time too (in my highly subjective dunning-krugered sunken-cost-fallacious opinion).
The idea was to make a plugin that could emulate most common exotic and vintage optical kinks without insane render times required, preferring fast “good-enough” emulations over scientifically accurate GPU-melting raytracing. I’m not trying to win a science-fair prize here. (THIS IS NOT A RAY-TRACER!). Conceptually, I wanted to create an emulated synthetic model of most cine optics first, then figuring out what the hell to do with it later. That’s why Ldb let’s you adjust an obsessive amount of parameters, presents the user with loadable and saveable presets of parameter states instead of limiting it to hardcoded and pre-defined lens makes or models to tweak. This may end up being a stupid approach – but it’s mine and I’m owning it. I think it’s more fun, inviting the user to explore effects and looks this way.
When the kind of engine able to handle many if not most traits was (finally) emerging through umpteen iterations, I started to think, why should I be the only one having to put in the work to create usable presets you also not be able to easily create that special optical kink you’re craving yourself? So I made an additional package for your AI chatbot to make you Lens Debaser preset files based on your own reference images and kinks tastes as descriptive text input to directly create it with AI, load and test in Resolve. Now with 100% vibe coding for you too!
Yes. I made some AI slop with AI for your AI to make more slop for you! It doesn’t get much more zeitgeist-y cringe than that… but it might actually work. Kind of. Try it and report back to me. (One feature on the optional road map is to enable a user-based living community repository, like you may know from e.g.soft-synth apps already for sharing presets. I think that’s neat. But with a community of one to date, this is currently folly).
Aside: If you came here to gripe about AI stealing your job, I hear you and I get you. Can’t say I disagree with you. Probably. However, this is the new lay of Darwin’s land – isn’t it? Insert that “always has been…” meme image here. At least I’m not pretending it’s something I came up with completely on my own – I’m not claiming it’s something other than slop (that might actually somewhat serve its advertised purpose).
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 source on GitHub (tl;dr you can pretty much use and abuse this project in any way you want as long as you attribute sources and keep it non-commercial)
Download latest Apple Silicon binaries installer
View the User Guide – complete with visual examples of what Ldb can do featuring before/after sliders to inspect its effect on test charts and actual footage.
Compare the OG Lens Debaser power grade to Lens Debaser OFX:
