Comparison

Liquid Lens vs (d)effect

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Liquid Lens

Transform your phone's camera into a live effects studio. Apply real-time distortions, color grades, and glitches directly in the viewfinder. Edit existing photos with the same powerful tools.

Highlights
  • Real-time camera effects
  • Distortion and color grading
  • Stackable effects
  • Adjustable effect intensity
  • Edit existing photos
  • Exposure control
Read full description

Liquid Lens is a camera built around one idea: layer effects live, save the look, shoot it again in one tap. Most camera apps make you pick a single filter. Liquid Lens lets you stack chromatic aberration, film grain, warped glass, and a hand-tuned gradient map all at once — and watch it composite in real time on your screen before you ever press the shutter. When you land on a combination you love, save it as a named preset and it's one tap away forever. No rebuilding your look shot by shot. EVERYTHING RUNS ON YOUR DEVICE Every effect is a custom Metal shader running locally through your GPU. Nothing is uploaded, nothing routes through a server — your photos and video never leave your phone. That also means zero lag between moving a slider and seeing the result on screen. LAYER YOUR EFFECTS, LIVE Combine any number of effects at once and see the composited result in the viewfinder in real time — not a preview render, not a "processing" screen. What you see is what gets captured, at full 48MP resolution. SAVE YOUR LOOK AS A ONE-TAP PRESET Dial in a stack of effects exactly how you want it, then save it and name it. Every slider value, every palette choice, and your warp level are stored together. Tap a saved Look and your entire stack snaps back instantly — no more re-dragging six sliders to match a look you had yesterday. EDIT PHOTOS FROM YOUR LIBRARY, TOO Effects aren't just for new shots. Pull any photo from your camera roll into the same live editor — same sliders, same presets, same Metal pipeline — and apply your layered look to photos you already have. 20+ EFFECTS TO STACK Color grading: Chromatic Aberration — edge-weighted RGB split Halation — warm highlight bloom Hyper — saturation that pushes color while crushing shadows Pink & Glow — a two-part beauty grade (faded-film color shift + dreamy highlight bloom) Blacks — shadow crush Oil Slick — drifting thin-film iridescence on highlights Solar — Sabattier tone-inversion on highlights Gradient Maps — 10 cinematic color-grade palettes (Sunset, Vapor, Ocean, Neon, Aurora, Ice, Acid, Rose, Noir, Matcha) Texture & distortion: Grain — animated film grain Sharpen Zoom Blur — radial motion blur from center Mesh — live 3D wireframe displacement Chrome — liquid-metal relief effect Polar — polar coordinate warp Trails — light trail smearing Ripple — animated water rings Fractal — reeded shower-glass refraction Marble — flowing ink/marble domain warp Warp — 4-level reverse-fisheye distortion, tap to cycle BUILT FOR ACTUALLY TAKING PHOTOS Full-resolution capture Photo and video capture, front and back camera Drag-to-adjust exposure control (-2 to +2 EV), right on the live preview Three aspect ratios: 4:5, 5:7 and 9:16 Flash for back camera, simulated screen-flash for front camera selfies Built-in gallery for everything you shoot in-app ONE PRICE, NOTHING ELSE TO BUY $2.99, once. No subscription, no in-app purchases, no ads, no account required.

About

(d)effect

This camera app applies unique, real-time visual effects directly to your photos and videos as you capture them. It offers a variety of artistic filters, allowing for live previews and immediate saving without any post-processing steps. All processing is done on-device, ensuring your content remains private.

Highlights
  • Live filter rendering on viewfinder
  • Real-time photo and video capture
  • Stackable and adjustable filters
  • On-device processing for privacy
  • Variety of unique artistic filters
  • Random effect generation
Features
Read full description

(d)effect is a camera that shows you the effect before you take the shot. Every filter renders live on the viewfinder at full frame rate — no preview, no "apply" step, no waiting. What you frame is what gets saved. THE FILTERS • Riso Print — RGB plate misregistration and grain, like a badly aligned risograph • Dither — 4×4 Bayer ordered dithering, the look of a 1-bit screen • ASCII — the frame rebuilt from coloured glyphs on black • False Color — channel crushing and hue cycling • Halation — the bloom that film gets around highlights • Posterize — hard tonal banding • Exclusion — a solid hue blended straight through the image • Low Res — chunky pixellation that scales with the shot • Slow Shutter — a real exposure change on the camera, so the motion blur is genuine rather than faked Stack them. Adjust contrast, brightness and saturation on anything. Hit Random when you want the machine to decide. PHOTO AND VIDEO Shoot stills or record video with the same effects, with audio, in 4:5. What the viewfinder showed is what lands in your library — filters that are sized in pixels scale with the image, so the saved file matches the preview. YOUR SHOTS STAY YOURS Everything is processed on your iPhone using Metal and Core Image. Nothing is uploaded, stored on a server, or looked at by anyone. There is no cloud gallery and no server-side processing — captures go straight to your own Photos library, into a "(d)effect" album the in-app gallery reads back. We hold one piece of personal data: the email address attached to your sign-in. You can delete your account, and it, from inside the app. — (d)effect is free while in active development — every filter unlocked, no ads, no subscription. If something breaks, tell us at support@d-effect.com and we'll fix it.

Screenshots

Liquid Lens4 screens
(d)effect4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Liquid Lens at 100% against (d)effect's 0%. Liquid Lens also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.0) and update cadence (daily vs every 2 weeks). (d)effect's advantage is price (Free vs $2.99). On ratings volume, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

(d)effect is free to download; Liquid Lens costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Liquid Lens holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Liquid Lens's written reviews are positive against 0% of (d)effect's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Liquid Lens ships an update daily, (d)effect every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Liquid Lens versus (d)effect: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLiquid Lens(d)effect
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (4 ratings) — better3.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings4 — better2
Update frequencyDaily — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.526.2 — better
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSydney BrynJoao Campagnolo

Customer experience

Liquid Lens

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

(d)effect

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

None

Liquid Lens

No in-app purchases

None

(d)effect

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Liquid Lens free?
Liquid Lens costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is (d)effect free?
(d)effect is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Liquid Lens or (d)effect?
Liquid Lens is rated higher. Liquid Lens averages 5.0 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while (d)effect averages 3.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Liquid Lens or (d)effect have ads?
Neither Liquid Lens nor (d)effect shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Liquid Lens or (d)effect?
Liquid Lens ships an update daily, and (d)effect every 2 weeks. Most recently, Liquid Lens was updated on November 5, 2026 and (d)effect on October 31, 2026.

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