If you’re running into performance issues, there are lots of ways to use LensNode that make it less taxing. This page collects the main ones. The techniques here are written for DaVinci Resolve, but the general ideas apply in any host.

Why LensNode is demanding

At higher resolutions, even very fast computers can struggle to run LensNode smoothly. That’s expected, given how much is being done to the image every frame. 4K is not just 4× the work of 1080p — it’s even more than that, because of both the number of pixels and the amount of extra blurring needed to achieve the same look you’d get at a lower resolution.

This is the trade-off for the features LensNode offers, as it is essentially a VFX plugin, and by that standard it is quite fast. It could be a lot worse: if these effects were raytraced, you’d be looking at minutes per frame instead of frames per second.

Edit at 1080p, render at 4K

If you absolutely have to run LensNode while editing, we recommend editing at 1080p or lower and then changing your timeline resolution to whatever your higher resolution is before rendering. In most cases, though, there’s little reason to run LensNode constantly on an edit timeline in the first place.

Lower the playback resolution

Use Resolve’s Timeline Playback Resolution setting to easily halve the amount of work the computer is doing, or set it to quarter for an even lighter preview. Your final render will still use the full resolution.

Host differences: this behaves differently in Final Cut Pro.

Pre-render with cache or render in place

Pre-rendering bakes the effect down so it doesn’t have to be recomputed on every playback. You can have a render cache enabled, which will try to manage this for you automatically, or you can manually render a clip in place. The naming convention for this varies from host to host.

If you’ve found settings that work for a particular shot, you can even render it in place in its log space (set LensNode to the matching log space) without doing any colour grading. From then on you can treat it as a normal shot with LensNode already baked in, and grade it afterwards.

Lighten the effect

Turning down individual settings in LensNode will affect the framerate positively. Some lens profiles are also heavier than others, so switching profiles can help.

Toggle LensNode off until render

You can also set everything the way you like it, then simply turn LensNode off until the end of the project. When it’s time to render, switch it back on.