diff --git a/skimage/io/_plugins/pil_plugin.py b/skimage/io/_plugins/pil_plugin.py
index f8d6488d..92482b7c 100644
--- a/skimage/io/_plugins/pil_plugin.py
+++ b/skimage/io/_plugins/pil_plugin.py
@@ -45,7 +45,23 @@ def imread(fname, dtype=None):
         site = "http://pillow.readthedocs.org/en/latest/installation.html#external-libraries"
         raise ValueError('Could not load "%s"\nPlease see documentation at: %s' % (fname, site))
     else:
-        return pil_to_ndarray(im, dtype)
+        return _get_pil_frames(im, dtype)
+
+
+def _get_pil_frames(img, dtype):
+    frames = []
+    try:
+        i = 0
+        while True:
+            frames.append(pil_to_ndarray(img, dtype=dtype,
+                                         close_fid=False))
+            i += 1
+            img.seek(i)
+    except EOFError:
+        pass
+    finally:
+        img.fp.close()
+    return np.dstack(frames)
 
 
 def pil_to_ndarray(im, dtype=None, close_fid=True):
diff --git a/skimage/io/collection.py b/skimage/io/collection.py
index 15ed5cfb..df5af2c2 100644
--- a/skimage/io/collection.py
+++ b/skimage/io/collection.py
@@ -345,6 +345,8 @@ class ImageCollection(object):
         if load_func is None:
             from ._io import imread
             self.load_func = imread
+            # treat each one as a multi image, then we access
+            # them from there
         else:
             self.load_func = load_func
 
@@ -412,7 +414,7 @@ class ImageCollection(object):
 
     def _check_imgnum(self, n):
         """Check that the given image number is valid."""
-        num = len(self.files)
+        num = len(self.nimages)
         if -num <= n < num:
             n = n % num
         else:
@@ -427,7 +429,7 @@ class ImageCollection(object):
 
     def __len__(self):
         """Number of images in collection."""
-        return len(self.files)
+        return self.nimages
 
     def __str__(self):
         return str(self.files)