diff --git a/src/image.js b/src/image.js
index 4f1367b..cf8b0b0 100644
--- a/src/image.js
+++ b/src/image.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 'use strict';
 
-var _, Logger, env, modifiers, stream, util, imgType;
+var _, Logger, env, modifiers, stream, util, imageType;
 
 _         = require('lodash');
 Logger    = require('./utils/logger');
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ env       = require('./config/environment_vars');
 modifiers = require('./lib/modifiers');
 stream    = require('stream');
 util      = require('util');
-imgType   = require('image-type');
+imageType = require('image-type');
 
 
 // Simple stream to represent an error at an early stage, for instance a
@@ -188,10 +188,15 @@ Object.defineProperty(Image.prototype, 'format', {
 Object.defineProperty(Image.prototype, 'contents', {
   get: function () { return this._contents; },
   set: function (data) {
+    var imgType;
+
     this._contents = data;
 
     if (this.isBuffer()) {
-      this.format = imgType(data).ext;
+      imgType = imageType(data);
+      if (imgType) {
+        this.format = imgType.ext;
+      }
       this.isFormatValid();
     }
   }
diff --git a/test/src/image-spec.js b/test/src/image-spec.js
index 8b8610d..99a77be 100644
--- a/test/src/image-spec.js
+++ b/test/src/image-spec.js
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ describe('Image class', function(){
   });
 
   describe('#content', function () {
-    it ('should set the format based on the image data', function () {
+    it('should set the format based on the image data', function () {
       var imgSrc = path.resolve(__dirname, '../sample_images/image1.jpg');
       var buf = fs.readFileSync(imgSrc);
       var img = new Img({path: '/path/to/image.jpg'});
@@ -33,6 +33,14 @@ describe('Image class', function(){
       img.contents = buf;
       img.format.should.equal('jpeg');
     });
+
+    it('should not die on invalid image data', function () {
+      var buf = new Buffer(5);
+      var img = new Img({path: '/path/to/image.jpg'});
+
+      img.contents = buf;
+      expect(img.format).to.not.exist;
+    });
   });
 
   describe('#parseImage', function(){