diff --git a/components/log/Kconfig b/components/log/Kconfig
index 1c624a216b..e6b135c3d4 100644
--- a/components/log/Kconfig
+++ b/components/log/Kconfig
@@ -8,10 +8,11 @@ menu "Log output"
             You can set lower verbosity level at runtime using
             esp_log_level_set function.
 
-            Note that this setting limits which log statements
-            are compiled into the program. So setting this to, say,
+            By default, this setting limits which log statements
+            are compiled into the program. For example, selecting
             "Warning" would mean that changing log level to "Debug"
-            at runtime will not be possible.
+            at runtime will not be possible. To allow increasing log
+            level above the default at runtime, see the next option.
 
         config LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL_NONE
             bool "No output"
@@ -36,6 +37,53 @@ menu "Log output"
         default 4 if LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL_DEBUG
         default 5 if LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL_VERBOSE
 
+    choice LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL
+        bool "Maximum log verbosity"
+        default LOG_MAXIMUM_EQUALS_DEFAULT
+        help
+            This config option sets the highest log verbosity that it's possible to select
+            at runtime by calling esp_log_level_set(). This level may be higher than
+            the default verbosity level which is set when the app starts up.
+
+            This can be used enable debugging output only at a critical point, for a particular
+            tag, or to minimize startup time but then enable more logs once the firmware has
+            loaded.
+
+            Note that increasing the maximum available log level will increase the firmware
+            binary size.
+
+            This option only applies to logging from the app, the bootloader log level is
+            fixed at compile time to the separate "Bootloader log verbosity" setting.
+
+        config LOG_MAXIMUM_EQUALS_DEFAULT
+            bool "Same as default"
+        config LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL_ERROR
+            bool "Error"
+            depends on LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL < 1
+        config LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL_WARN
+            bool "Warning"
+            depends on LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL < 2
+        config LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL_INFO
+            bool "Info"
+            depends on LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL < 3
+        config LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL_DEBUG
+            bool "Debug"
+            depends on LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL < 4
+        config LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL_VERBOSE
+            bool "Verbose"
+            depends on LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL < 5
+    endchoice
+
+    config LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL
+        int
+        default LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL if LOG_MAXIMUM_EQUALS_DEFAULT
+        default 0 if LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL_NONE
+        default 1 if LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL_ERROR
+        default 2 if LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL_WARN
+        default 3 if LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL_INFO
+        default 4 if LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL_DEBUG
+        default 5 if LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL_VERBOSE
+
     config LOG_COLORS
         bool "Use ANSI terminal colors in log output"
         default "y"
diff --git a/components/log/include/esp_log.h b/components/log/include/esp_log.h
index 1f3c17139c..131e093e9f 100644
--- a/components/log/include/esp_log.h
+++ b/components/log/include/esp_log.h
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ typedef int (*vprintf_like_t)(const char *, va_list);
  * If logging for given component has already been enabled, changes previous setting.
  *
  * Note that this function can not raise log level above the level set using
- * CONFIG_LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL setting in menuconfig.
+ * CONFIG_LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL setting in menuconfig.
  *
  * To raise log level above the default one for a given file, define
  * LOG_LOCAL_LEVEL to one of the ESP_LOG_* values, before including
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ void esp_log_writev(esp_log_level_t level, const char* tag, const char* format,
 
 #ifndef LOG_LOCAL_LEVEL
 #ifndef BOOTLOADER_BUILD
-#define LOG_LOCAL_LEVEL  CONFIG_LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL
+#define LOG_LOCAL_LEVEL  CONFIG_LOG_MAXIMUM_LEVEL
 #else
 #define LOG_LOCAL_LEVEL  CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_LOG_LEVEL
 #endif
diff --git a/components/log/log_freertos.c b/components/log/log_freertos.c
index 25308761c3..6caf8b4e31 100644
--- a/components/log/log_freertos.c
+++ b/components/log/log_freertos.c
@@ -11,11 +11,16 @@
 #include "freertos/task.h"
 #include "freertos/semphr.h"
 #include "hal/cpu_hal.h" // for cpu_hal_get_cycle_count()
+#include "esp_compiler.h"
 #include "esp_log.h"
 #include "esp_log_private.h"
 
 
 // Maximum time to wait for the mutex in a logging statement.
+//
+// We don't expect this to happen in most cases, as contention is low. The most likely case is if a
+// log function is called from an ISR (technically caller should use the ISR-friendly logging macros but
+// possible they use the normal one instead and disable the log type by tag).
 #define MAX_MUTEX_WAIT_MS 10
 #define MAX_MUTEX_WAIT_TICKS ((MAX_MUTEX_WAIT_MS + portTICK_PERIOD_MS - 1) / portTICK_PERIOD_MS)
 
@@ -23,22 +28,31 @@ static SemaphoreHandle_t s_log_mutex = NULL;
 
 void esp_log_impl_lock(void)
 {
-    if (!s_log_mutex) {
+    if (unlikely(!s_log_mutex)) {
         s_log_mutex = xSemaphoreCreateMutex();
     }
+    if (unlikely(xTaskGetSchedulerState() == taskSCHEDULER_NOT_STARTED)) {
+        return;
+    }
     xSemaphoreTake(s_log_mutex, portMAX_DELAY);
 }
 
 bool esp_log_impl_lock_timeout(void)
 {
-    if (!s_log_mutex) {
+    if (unlikely(!s_log_mutex)) {
         s_log_mutex = xSemaphoreCreateMutex();
     }
+    if (unlikely(xTaskGetSchedulerState() == taskSCHEDULER_NOT_STARTED)) {
+        return true;
+    }
     return xSemaphoreTake(s_log_mutex, MAX_MUTEX_WAIT_TICKS) == pdTRUE;
 }
 
 void esp_log_impl_unlock(void)
 {
+    if (unlikely(xTaskGetSchedulerState() == taskSCHEDULER_NOT_STARTED)) {
+        return;
+    }
     xSemaphoreGive(s_log_mutex);
 }
 
@@ -84,7 +98,7 @@ char *esp_log_system_timestamp(void)
 
 uint32_t esp_log_timestamp(void)
 {
-    if (xTaskGetSchedulerState() == taskSCHEDULER_NOT_STARTED) {
+    if (unlikely(xTaskGetSchedulerState() == taskSCHEDULER_NOT_STARTED)) {
         return esp_log_early_timestamp();
     }
     static uint32_t base = 0;