diff --git a/src/c_wrapper/error.h b/src/c_wrapper/error.h
index 3a7ed85e07d909d28a7771050235f2c8b256dab4..5730f361c50d0442a735297c83dbbca91406cc22 100644
--- a/src/c_wrapper/error.h
+++ b/src/c_wrapper/error.h
@@ -21,6 +21,13 @@
 #define PYOPENCL_CL_CASTABLE_THIS data()
 #endif
 
+#define PYOPENCL_UNSUPPORTED(ROUTINE, VERSION) \
+    auto err = (error*)malloc(sizeof(error)); \
+    err->routine = strdup(#ROUTINE); \
+    err->msg = strdup("unsupported in " VERSION); \
+    err->code = CL_INVALID_VALUE \
+    err->other = 0; \
+    return err;
 
 class clerror : public std::runtime_error {
 private:
diff --git a/src/c_wrapper/image.cpp b/src/c_wrapper/image.cpp
index 427f1e344da3ebf15823974ac7c67d6cb1f4559e..12f0f563e5340e841f14aca3c91bd40ebfb6c1b7 100644
--- a/src/c_wrapper/image.cpp
+++ b/src/c_wrapper/image.cpp
@@ -81,21 +81,23 @@ create_image_3d(clobj_t *img, clobj_t _ctx, cl_mem_flags flags,
         });
 }
 
-#if PYOPENCL_CL_VERSION >= 0x1020
 
 error*
 create_image_from_desc(clobj_t *img, clobj_t _ctx, cl_mem_flags flags,
                        cl_image_format *fmt, cl_image_desc *desc, void *buf)
 {
+#if PYOPENCL_CL_VERSION >= 0x1020
     auto ctx = static_cast<context*>(_ctx);
     return c_handle_error([&] {
             auto mem = pyopencl_call_guarded(clCreateImage, ctx, flags, fmt,
                                              desc, buf);
             *img = new_image(mem, fmt);
         });
+#else
+    PYOPENCL_UNSUPPORTED(clCreateImage, "CL 1.1 and below")
+#endif
 }
 
-#endif
 
 error*
 image__get_image_info(clobj_t _img, cl_image_info param, generic_info *out)