diff --git a/modules/imgproc/include/opencv2/imgproc.hpp b/modules/imgproc/include/opencv2/imgproc.hpp
index 717dcf578a..28040b5b70 100644
--- a/modules/imgproc/include/opencv2/imgproc.hpp
+++ b/modules/imgproc/include/opencv2/imgproc.hpp
@@ -3796,7 +3796,7 @@ enum ColormapTypes
 
 /** @brief Applies a GNU Octave/MATLAB equivalent colormap on a given image.
 
-@param src The source image, grayscale or colored does not matter.
+@param src The source image, grayscale or colored of type CV_8UC1 or CV_8UC3.
 @param dst The result is the colormapped source image. Note: Mat::create is called on dst.
 @param colormap The colormap to apply, see cv::ColormapTypes
  */
diff --git a/modules/imgproc/src/colormap.cpp b/modules/imgproc/src/colormap.cpp
index 6d03d7b5f0..ec6e005cee 100644
--- a/modules/imgproc/src/colormap.cpp
+++ b/modules/imgproc/src/colormap.cpp
@@ -144,10 +144,7 @@ namespace colormap
 
         // Applies the colormap on a given image.
         //
-        // This function expects BGR-aligned data of type CV_8UC1 or
-        // CV_8UC3. If the wrong image type is given, the original image
-        // will be returned.
-        //
+        // This function expects BGR-aligned data of type CV_8UC1 or CV_8UC3.
         // Throws an error for wrong-aligned lookup table, which must be
         // of size 256 in the latest OpenCV release (2.3.1).
         void operator()(InputArray src, OutputArray dst) const;
@@ -498,12 +495,8 @@ namespace colormap
         if(_lut.total() != 256)
             CV_Error(Error::StsAssert, "cv::LUT only supports tables of size 256.");
         Mat src = _src.getMat();
-        // Return original matrix if wrong type is given (is fail loud better here?)
-        if(src.type() != CV_8UC1 && src.type() != CV_8UC3)
-        {
-            src.copyTo(_dst);
-            return;
-        }
+        if(src.type() != CV_8UC1  &&  src.type() != CV_8UC3)
+            CV_Error(Error::StsBadArg, "cv::ColorMap only supports source images of type CV_8UC1 or CV_8UC3");
         // Turn into a BGR matrix into its grayscale representation.
         if(src.type() == CV_8UC3)
             cvtColor(src.clone(), src, COLOR_BGR2GRAY);