Canon Log 2 or Canon Log 3, and which LUT you need

They are different curves. A LUT built for one is wrong for the other, and the error is small enough to miss and large enough to matter.

The short version

Canon Log 2 holds the most range and is the flattest of the three Canon curves. It is built for full grading control.

Canon Log 3 holds less range and keeps more contrast, so it is easier to work with quickly and needs less grading to look normal.

Neither is better. Log 2 gives you more to work with, Log 3 gives you less to do.

How to tell which you shot

Open the clip in Resolve and look at the Metadata panel, or check the camera's picture profile. Cameras that offer both usually record the choice into the clip. If you cannot find it, apply a Log 2 conversion and then a Log 3 conversion and compare. The wrong one lands noticeably off in the shadows and the mids, in a way that is hard to fix by eye.

Gamut is separate from gamma

Log 2 and Log 3 are gammas, meaning tone curves. Cinema Gamut is the color space, meaning how saturated colors are recorded. In a Color Space Transform you set both, and mixing up which box is which is a common mistake.

Something we measured and could not find written anywhere

Canon publishes its log formulas with a factor of 0.9 that relates recorded values to reflected light. Whether an implementation applies that factor changes the result by log2(0.9), about 0.15 of a stop.

We tested this by having Resolve generate a LUT from its own Color Space Transform and comparing it against the published math both ways. Resolve decodes Canon Log without that 0.9 factor. Our conversion matches Resolve's to 0.01 of a 10-bit code value once you do it that way, and is about 11 code values off if you do not.

Fifteen hundredths of a stop is not visible on one shot. It is visible when a Canon clip is cut against another camera that was converted correctly, which is exactly when it is expensive to discover.

Updated 2026-09-12. All guides