diff --git a/src/PythonQt.cpp b/src/PythonQt.cpp
index 95d34cc..5a89025 100644
--- a/src/PythonQt.cpp
+++ b/src/PythonQt.cpp
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ void PythonQt::init(int flags, const QByteArray& pythonQtModuleName)
     PythonQt_init_QtCoreBuiltin(NULL);
     PythonQt_init_QtGuiBuiltin(NULL);
   
+    PythonQtRegisterToolClassesTemplateConverter(QByteArray);
     PythonQtRegisterToolClassesTemplateConverter(QDate);
     PythonQtRegisterToolClassesTemplateConverter(QTime);
     PythonQtRegisterToolClassesTemplateConverter(QDateTime);
diff --git a/src/PythonQtConversion.cpp b/src/PythonQtConversion.cpp
index ae504ef..b6587ea 100644
--- a/src/PythonQtConversion.cpp
+++ b/src/PythonQtConversion.cpp
@@ -146,10 +146,11 @@ PyObject* PythonQtConv::ConvertQtValueToPythonInternal(int type, const void* dat
     return PyLong_FromLongLong(*((qint64*)data));
   case QMetaType::ULongLong:
     return PyLong_FromUnsignedLongLong(*((quint64*)data));
-  case QMetaType::QByteArray: {
-    QByteArray* v = (QByteArray*) data;
-    return PyString_FromStringAndSize(*v, v->size());
-                              }
+      // implicit conversion from QByteArray to str has been removed:
+  //case QMetaType::QByteArray: {
+  //  QByteArray* v = (QByteArray*) data;
+  //  return PyString_FromStringAndSize(*v, v->size());
+  //                            }
   case QMetaType::QVariantMap:
     return PythonQtConv::QVariantMapToPyObject(*((QVariantMap*)data));
   case QMetaType::QVariantList:
@@ -689,6 +690,7 @@ QString PythonQtConv::PyObjGetString(PyObject* val, bool strict, bool& ok) {
 }
 
 QByteArray PythonQtConv::PyObjGetBytes(PyObject* val, bool /*strict*/, bool& ok) {
+  // TODO: support buffer objects in general
   QByteArray r;
   ok = true;
   if (val->ob_type == &PyString_Type) {
diff --git a/src/PythonQtDoc.h b/src/PythonQtDoc.h
index ac7eeda..4ebdbbd 100644
--- a/src/PythonQtDoc.h
+++ b/src/PythonQtDoc.h
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@
  - QObject.emit to emit Qt signals from Python is not yet implemented but PythonQt allows to just emit a signal by calling it
  - PythonQt does not (yet) offer to add new signals to Python/C++ objects
  - Ownership of objects is a bit different in PythonQt, currently Python classes derived from a C++ class need to be manually referenced in Python to not get deleted too early (this will be fixed)
- - QString and QBytearray are always converted to unicode and str Python objects (PyQt returns QString and QByteArray instead).
+ - QStrings are always converted to unicode Python objects (PyQt returns QString instead), we prefered to return Python strings.
  - Probably there are lots of details that differ, I do not know PyQt that well to list them all.
 
  \section Interface
diff --git a/src/PythonQtInstanceWrapper.cpp b/src/PythonQtInstanceWrapper.cpp
index 576f2de..eefdca3 100644
--- a/src/PythonQtInstanceWrapper.cpp
+++ b/src/PythonQtInstanceWrapper.cpp
@@ -566,6 +566,17 @@ static QString getStringFromObject(PythonQtInstanceWrapper* wrapper) {
 static PyObject * PythonQtInstanceWrapper_str(PyObject * obj)
 {
   PythonQtInstanceWrapper* wrapper = (PythonQtInstanceWrapper*)obj;
+
+  // QByteArray should be directly returned as a str
+  if (wrapper->classInfo()->metaTypeId()==QVariant::ByteArray) {
+    QByteArray* b = (QByteArray*) wrapper->_wrappedPtr;
+    if (b->data()) {
+      return PyString_FromStringAndSize(b->data(), b->size());
+    } else {
+      return PyString_FromString("");
+    }
+  }
+
   const char* typeName = obj->ob_type->tp_name;
   QObject *qobj = wrapper->_obj;
   QString str = getStringFromObject(wrapper);