diff --git a/modules/stitching/src/matchers.cpp b/modules/stitching/src/matchers.cpp
index d05afff24f..9bab58c52f 100644
--- a/modules/stitching/src/matchers.cpp
+++ b/modules/stitching/src/matchers.cpp
@@ -357,7 +357,6 @@ void SurfFeaturesFinder::find(const Mat &image, ImageFeatures &features)
     {
         gray_image = image;
     }
-    cvtColor(image, gray_image, CV_BGR2GRAY);
     if (surf == 0)
     {
         detector_->detect(gray_image, features.keypoints);