diff --git a/nibabel/optpkg.py b/nibabel/optpkg.py
index 794960ddc3..4bb8a991d7 100644
--- a/nibabel/optpkg.py
+++ b/nibabel/optpkg.py
@@ -94,10 +94,14 @@ def optional_package(name, trip_msg=None, min_version=None):
     # fromlist=[''] results in submodule being returned, rather than the top
     # level module.  See help(__import__)
     fromlist = [''] if '.' in name else []
+    exc = None
     try:
         pkg = __import__(name, fromlist=fromlist)
-    except ImportError:
-        pass
+    except Exception as exc_:
+        # Could fail due to some ImportError or for some other reason
+        # e.g. h5py might have been checking file system to support UTF-8
+        # etc.  We should not blow if they blow
+        exc = exc_  # So it is accessible outside of the code block
     else:  # import worked
         # top level module
         if check_version(pkg):
@@ -111,8 +115,8 @@ def optional_package(name, trip_msg=None, min_version=None):
                             (name, min_version))
     if trip_msg is None:
         trip_msg = ('We need package %s for these functions, but '
-                    '``import %s`` raised an ImportError'
-                    % (name, name))
+                    '``import %s`` raised %s'
+                    % (name, name, exc))
     pkg = TripWire(trip_msg)
 
     def setup_module():
diff --git a/nibabel/py3k.py b/nibabel/py3k.py
index 1c3300ac91..c132d7809d 100644
--- a/nibabel/py3k.py
+++ b/nibabel/py3k.py
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ def open_latin1(filename, mode='r'):
     ints2bytes = lambda seq: bytes(seq)
     ZEROB = bytes([0])
     FileNotFoundError = FileNotFoundError
+    import builtins
 else:
     import StringIO
     StringIO = BytesIO = StringIO.StringIO
@@ -66,6 +67,8 @@ def open_latin1(filename, mode='r'):
     class FileNotFoundError(IOError):
         pass
 
+    import __builtin__ as builtins  # flake8: noqa F401
+
 
 def getexception():
     return sys.exc_info()[1]
diff --git a/nibabel/tests/test_optpkg.py b/nibabel/tests/test_optpkg.py
index 2bca1f6975..a4c090e1af 100644
--- a/nibabel/tests/test_optpkg.py
+++ b/nibabel/tests/test_optpkg.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """ Testing optpkg module
 """
 
+import mock
 import types
 import sys
 from distutils.version import LooseVersion
@@ -10,6 +11,7 @@
                         assert_equal)
 
 
+from nibabel.py3k import builtins
 from nibabel.optpkg import optional_package
 from nibabel.tripwire import TripWire, TripWireError
 
@@ -36,6 +38,12 @@ def test_basic():
     assert_good('os.path')
     # We never have package _not_a_package
     assert_bad('_not_a_package')
+    def raise_Exception(*args, **kwargs):
+        raise Exception(
+            "non ImportError could be thrown by some malfunctioning module "
+            "upon import, and optional_package should catch it too")
+    with mock.patch.object(builtins, '__import__', side_effect=raise_Exception):
+        assert_bad('nottriedbefore')
 
 
 def test_versions():