EOS R ISO L Values

[GeneraStudios]

Hey everyone,

I googled the heck out of this and couldn't find an answer! On my Canon EOS R the lower ISO values show up as ISO L for ISO 100-320. 

Everything I saw online pointed to older cameras and ISO L50, but thats not what i'm seeing on the EOS R. 

So for the EOS R, what exactly are the ISO L values? Why are they called L for 100-320 ISO, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of using them? I've seen comparisons online about ISO values and it seems that lower is not always less noisey.

Just to give you some perspective on what I shoot - 90% of my camera usage is for video that ends up on YouTube or social media. Its shot indoors with fully controlled lighting, so I can pretty much use light to get to whatever ISO I need to achieve the cleanest image.

Thanks!

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Andrew Southworth

Genera studios

[MikeSowsun]

L should be for one ISO value, not a range of ISO. According to the manual, the EOS R has a native ISO of 100-25600. L is for 50, H1 is 51200 and H2 is 102400.

When shooting 4K video the native ISO changes to 100-12800. Auto ISO upper and lower limits can always be changed. I don’t see anything in the manual referring to L for anything but ISO 50.  Are you shooting 4K video? Are you using Auto ISO? Have you changed the Auto ISO upper and lower limits?

If your shoot HDR video ISO expansion (L, H1,H2) is not available.  

You may have to reset the camera to default settings and start over again because you should be able to shoot ISO 100 without using L.

[GeneraStudios]

Hi Mike, thanks for the quick reply.

I actually don't even have the L50 value showing at all. But if I switch to ISO 100, 160, 320 it shows an L underneath ISO and refers to it as L(320) etc. 

The L shows up in both 4K and HD, at all frame rates for these ISO values. I'm in manual video mode, so I don't believe i'm on auto ISO since it doesn't automatically change - it only changes when I manually change it. I haven't touched the auto ISO limits because I always set it manually. 

I'm also on the most recent firmware. 

Thanks,

--

Andrew

[Peter]

Do you have a picture of what you are talking about?

[GeneraStudios]

Grabbed a quick picture of the screen. See how in the corner it says ISO L 320? It shows the L for every ISO value under 320. I also just confirmed that this only happens in video mode.

[Waddizzle]

Here is the part that I do not understand. You read something on the internet that seems to totally contradict camera’s user manual.

Now you are questioning the user manual?

[MikeSowsun]

Have you enabled "expanded" ISO?  Have you tried using ISO 50, 51200 and 102400?

Most cameras have a menu item that enables "expanded" ISO which includes ISO 50(L), ISO 51200(H1), and ISO 102400(H2). 

[GeneraStudios]

Not sure what you're referring to. 

[Waddizzle · Accepted solution]

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@GeneraStudios wrote:

Not sure what you're referring to. 

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I think you should refer to the instruction manual, instead of the internet.

[GeneraStudios]

When I saw this post it was on my phone and the image didn't show up. This answers it!

Looks like C-Log is the reason for this expanded higher ISO range. Couldn't find this at all when reading through the manual myself. Thanks!