diff --git a/fastplotlib/widgets/image_widget/_widget.py b/fastplotlib/widgets/image_widget/_widget.py
index 2773470c..79330104 100644
--- a/fastplotlib/widgets/image_widget/_widget.py
+++ b/fastplotlib/widgets/image_widget/_widget.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ def _is_arraylike(obj) -> bool:
     Checks if the object is array-like.
     For now just checks if obj has `__getitem__()`
     """
-    for attr in ["__getitem__", "shape", "ndim"]:
+    for attr in ["__getitem__", "shape"]:
         if not hasattr(obj, attr):
             return False
 
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ def current_index(self, index: dict[str, int]):
             return
 
         try:
-            self._reentrant_block = True # block re-execution until current_index has *fully* completed execution
+            self._reentrant_block = True  # block re-execution until current_index has *fully* completed execution
             if not set(index.keys()).issubset(set(self._current_index.keys())):
                 raise KeyError(
                     f"All dimension keys for setting `current_index` must be present in the widget sliders. "
@@ -210,7 +210,9 @@ def current_index(self, index: dict[str, int]):
                 if not isinstance(val, int):
                     raise TypeError("Indices for all dimensions must be int")
                 if val < 0:
-                    raise IndexError("negative indexing is not supported for ImageWidget")
+                    raise IndexError(
+                        "negative indexing is not supported for ImageWidget"
+                    )
                 if val > self._dims_max_bounds[k]:
                     raise IndexError(
                         f"index {val} is out of bounds for dimension '{k}' "
@@ -367,6 +369,11 @@ def __init__(
         if isinstance(data, list):
             # verify that it's a list of np.ndarray
             if all([_is_arraylike(d) for d in data]):
+
+                for i, d in enumerate(data):
+                    if not hasattr(d, "ndim"):
+                        data[i] = np.asarray(d)
+
                 # Grid computations
                 if figure_shape is None:
                     if "shape" in figure_kwargs:
@@ -908,6 +915,11 @@ def set_data(
             )
         # check all arrays
         for i, (new_array, current_array) in enumerate(zip(new_data, self._data)):
+
+            # if we don't know the ndim, we can get it from the shape
+            if not hasattr(new_array, "ndim"):
+                new_array.ndim = len(new_array.shape)
+
             if new_array.ndim != current_array.ndim:
                 raise ValueError(
                     f"new data ndim {new_array.ndim} at index {i} "