diff --git a/demo/iso_read.c b/demo/iso_read.c
index a4213ae..e70fbd8 100644
--- a/demo/iso_read.c
+++ b/demo/iso_read.c
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
         0, /* uid; */
         0, /* gid; */
         0, /* mode */
-        "UTF-8" /* input_charset */
+        NULL /* input_charset */
     };
 
     if (argc != 2) {
diff --git a/src/fs_image.c b/src/fs_image.c
index 04517cb..729c732 100644
--- a/src/fs_image.c
+++ b/src/fs_image.c
@@ -1486,14 +1486,21 @@ int iso_image_filesystem_new(IsoDataSource *src, struct iso_read_opts *opts,
     data->mode = opts->mode & ~S_IFMT;
     data->messenger = messenger;
     
-    data->input_charset = strdup(opts->input_charset);
-    
     setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "");
     data->local_charset = strdup(nl_langinfo(CODESET));
     if (data->local_charset == NULL) {
         ret = ISO_MEM_ERROR;
         goto fs_cleanup;
     }
+    if (opts->input_charset != NULL) {
+        data->input_charset = strdup(opts->input_charset);
+    } else {
+        data->input_charset = strdup(data->local_charset);
+    }
+    if (data->input_charset == NULL) {
+        ret = ISO_MEM_ERROR;
+        goto fs_cleanup;
+    }
 
     ifs->open = ifs_fs_open;
     ifs->close = ifs_fs_close;
diff --git a/src/libisofs.h b/src/libisofs.h
index 0f4a969..1abbfb6 100644
--- a/src/libisofs.h
+++ b/src/libisofs.h
@@ -278,6 +278,9 @@ struct iso_read_opts
     //TODO differ file and dir mode
     //option to convert names to lower case?
     
+    /**
+     * Input charset for RR file names. NULL to use default locale charset.
+     */
     char *input_charset;
 };