diff --git a/modules/python/src2/cv2.cpp b/modules/python/src2/cv2.cpp
index 28cf00eac2..02e1b46424 100644
--- a/modules/python/src2/cv2.cpp
+++ b/modules/python/src2/cv2.cpp
@@ -224,9 +224,42 @@ static int pyopencv_to(const PyObject* o, Mat& m, const ArgInfo info, bool allow
         return true;
     }
 
+    if( PyInt_Check(o) )
+    {
+        double v[] = {PyInt_AsLong((PyObject*)o), 0., 0., 0.};
+        m = Mat(4, 1, CV_64F, v).clone();
+        return true;
+    }
+    if( PyFloat_Check(o) )
+    {
+        double v[] = {PyFloat_AsDouble((PyObject*)o), 0., 0., 0.};
+        m = Mat(4, 1, CV_64F, v).clone();
+        return true;
+    }
+    if( PyTuple_Check(o) )
+    {
+        int i, sz = (int)PyTuple_Size((PyObject*)o);
+        m = Mat(sz, 1, CV_64F);
+        for( i = 0; i < sz; i++ )
+        {
+            PyObject* oi = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(o, i);
+            if( PyInt_Check(oi) )
+                m.at<double>(i) = (double)PyInt_AsLong(oi);
+            else if( PyFloat_Check(oi) )
+                m.at<double>(i) = (double)PyFloat_AsDouble(oi);
+            else
+            {
+                failmsg("%s is not a numerical tuple", info.name);
+                m.release();
+                return false;
+            }
+        }
+        return true;
+    }
+
     if( !PyArray_Check(o) )
     {
-        failmsg("%s is not a numpy array", info.name);
+        failmsg("%s is not a numpy array, neither a scalar", info.name);
         return false;
     }
 
@@ -236,6 +269,7 @@ static int pyopencv_to(const PyObject* o, Mat& m, const ArgInfo info, bool allow
                typenum == NPY_BYTE ? CV_8S :
                typenum == NPY_USHORT ? CV_16U :
                typenum == NPY_SHORT ? CV_16S :
+               typenum == NPY_INT ? CV_32S :
                typenum == NPY_INT32 ? CV_32S :
                typenum == NPY_FLOAT ? CV_32F :
                typenum == NPY_DOUBLE ? CV_64F : -1;
@@ -245,7 +279,7 @@ static int pyopencv_to(const PyObject* o, Mat& m, const ArgInfo info, bool allow
         if( typenum == NPY_INT64 || typenum == NPY_UINT64 || type == NPY_LONG )
         {
             needcopy = needcast = true;
-            new_typenum = NPY_INT32;
+            new_typenum = NPY_INT;
             type = CV_32S;
         }
         else
@@ -442,7 +476,12 @@ static bool pyopencv_to(PyObject* obj, int& value, const char* name = "<unknown>
     (void)name;
     if(!obj || obj == Py_None)
         return true;
-    value = (int)PyInt_AsLong(obj);
+    if(PyInt_Check(obj))
+        value = (int)PyInt_AsLong(obj);
+    else if(PyLong_Check(obj))
+        value = (int)PyLong_AsLong(obj);
+    else
+        return false;
     return value != -1 || !PyErr_Occurred();
 }
 
@@ -707,7 +746,14 @@ template<typename _Tp> struct pyopencvVecConverter
                 PyObject* item_ij = items_i[j];
                 if( PyInt_Check(item_ij))
                 {
-                    int v = PyInt_AsLong(item_ij);
+                    int v = (int)PyInt_AsLong(item_ij);
+                    if( v == -1 && PyErr_Occurred() )
+                        break;
+                    data[j] = saturate_cast<_Cp>(v);
+                }
+                else if( PyLong_Check(item_ij))
+                {
+                    int v = (int)PyLong_AsLong(item_ij);
                     if( v == -1 && PyErr_Occurred() )
                         break;
                     data[j] = saturate_cast<_Cp>(v);
diff --git a/modules/python/test/test2.py b/modules/python/test/test2.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c7491ad974
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/python/test/test2.py
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+#/usr/bin/env python
+
+import unittest
+import random
+import time
+import math
+import sys
+import array
+import urllib
+import tarfile
+import hashlib
+import os
+import getopt
+import operator
+import functools
+import numpy as np
+import cv2
+import cv2.cv as cv
+
+class NewOpenCVTests(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def get_sample(self, filename, iscolor = cv.CV_LOAD_IMAGE_COLOR):
+        if not filename in self.image_cache:
+            filedata = urllib.urlopen("https://raw.github.com/Itseez/opencv/master/" + filename).read()
+            self.image_cache[filename] = cv2.imdecode(np.fromstring(filedata, dtype=np.uint8), iscolor)
+        return self.image_cache[filename]
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.image_cache = {}
+
+    def hashimg(self, im):
+        """ Compute a hash for an image, useful for image comparisons """
+        return hashlib.md5(im.tostring()).digest()
+
+# Tests to run first; check the handful of basic operations that the later tests rely on
+
+class Hackathon244Tests(NewOpenCVTests):
+    
+    def test_int_array(self):
+        a = np.array([-1, 2, -3, 4, -5])
+        absa0 = np.abs(a)
+        self.assert_(cv2.norm(a, cv2.NORM_L1) == 15)
+        absa1 = cv2.absdiff(a, 0)
+        self.assert_(cv2.norm(absa1, absa0, cv2.NORM_INF) == 0)
+        
+    def test_imencode(self):
+        a = np.zeros((480, 640), dtype=np.uint8)
+        flag, ajpg = cv2.imencode("img_q90.jpg", a, [cv2.IMWRITE_JPEG_QUALITY, 90])
+        self.assert_(flag == True and ajpg.dtype == np.uint8 and ajpg.shape[0] > 1 and ajpg.shape[1] == 1)
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    print "testing", cv.__version__
+    random.seed(0)
+    unittest.main()