diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 3724140f..ec7387c2 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 - add pdfload, svgload, gifload for PDF, SVG and GIF rendering 
 - vipsthumbnail knows about pdfload and svgload
 - added @page param to magickload 
+- matload is more specific (thanks bithive)
 
 27/1/16 started 8.2.3
 - fix a crash with SPARC byte-order labq vips images
diff --git a/libvips/foreign/magick2vips.c b/libvips/foreign/magick2vips.c
index 5d3d73a8..4881355d 100644
--- a/libvips/foreign/magick2vips.c
+++ b/libvips/foreign/magick2vips.c
@@ -705,9 +705,10 @@ vips__magick_read( const char *filename, VipsImage *out,
 		 */
 
 		/* This doesn't seem to work, strange.
-		 *
-		 * read->image_info->number_scenes = 1;
-		 * read->image_info->scene = read->page;
+
+		read->image_info->number_scenes = 1;
+		read->image_info->scene = read->page;
+
 		 */
 
 		/* This works, but is no faster.
diff --git a/libvips/foreign/matlab.c b/libvips/foreign/matlab.c
index a7663f55..a4b3d576 100644
--- a/libvips/foreign/matlab.c
+++ b/libvips/foreign/matlab.c
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
  * 21/8/14
  * 	- swap width/height
  * 	- set interpretation to rgb16 etc. 
+ * 16/2/16
+ * 	- more specific is_a test 
  */
 
 /*
@@ -319,14 +321,13 @@ vips__mat_load( const char *filename, VipsImage *out )
 int
 vips__mat_ismat( const char *filename )
 {
-	mat_t *mat;
+	unsigned char buf[15];
 
-	vips_error_freeze();
-	mat = Mat_Open( filename, MAT_ACC_RDONLY );
-	Mat_Close( mat );
-	vips_error_thaw();
+	if( vips__get_bytes( filename, buf, 10 ) &&
+		vips_isprefix( "MATLAB 5.0", (char *) buf ) )
+		return( 1 );
 
-	return( mat != NULL );
+	return( 0 );
 }
 
 const char *vips__mat_suffs[] = { ".mat", NULL };
diff --git a/libvips/foreign/matload.c b/libvips/foreign/matload.c
index 2101ccde..4423894a 100644
--- a/libvips/foreign/matload.c
+++ b/libvips/foreign/matload.c
@@ -122,11 +122,6 @@ vips_foreign_load_mat_class_init( VipsForeignLoadMatClass *class )
 
 	foreign_class->suffs = vips__mat_suffs;
 
-	/* We need to be lower priority than the jpeg loader, since some jpegs
-	 * can make libmatio segv on Mat_Open(). 
-	 */
-	foreign_class->priority = -50;
-
 	load_class->is_a = vips__mat_ismat;
 	load_class->get_flags_filename = 
 		vips_foreign_load_mat_get_flags_filename;
diff --git a/libvips/iofuncs/util.c b/libvips/iofuncs/util.c
index 80c874a8..dd531983 100644
--- a/libvips/iofuncs/util.c
+++ b/libvips/iofuncs/util.c
@@ -319,21 +319,24 @@ vips_ispostfix( const char *a, const char *b )
 	return( strcmp( a + m - n, b ) == 0 );
 }
 
-/* Test for string a starts string b. 
+/* Test for string a starts string b. a is a known-good string, b may be
+ * random data. 
  */
 gboolean
 vips_isprefix( const char *a, const char *b )
 {
-	int n = strlen( a );
-	int m = strlen( b );
 	int i;
 
-	if( m < n )
-		return( FALSE );
-	for( i = 0; i < n; i++ )
+	for( i = 0; a[i] && b[i]; i++ )
 		if( a[i] != b[i] )
 			return( FALSE );
-	
+
+	/* If there's stuff left in a but b has finished, we must have a
+	 * mismatch.
+	 */
+	if( a[i] && !b[i] )
+		return( FALSE );
+
 	return( TRUE );
 }