diff --git a/src/components/views/messages/MImageBody.js b/src/components/views/messages/MImageBody.js
index c0e751431f..14c8c94f30 100644
--- a/src/components/views/messages/MImageBody.js
+++ b/src/components/views/messages/MImageBody.js
@@ -151,6 +151,18 @@ export default class MImageBody extends React.Component {
         if (this.refs.image) {
             const { naturalWidth, naturalHeight } = this.refs.image;
 
+            // XXX: if this is a retina image, the naturalWidth/Height
+            // are going to be off by a factor of 2. However, we don't know
+            // this at this point - so until we include a resolution param
+            // in info, this might cause scroll jumps for retina images?
+            //
+            // Something like:
+            //
+            // if (content.info && content.info.devicePixelRatio) {
+            //    naturalWidth /= content.info.devicePixelRatio;
+            //    naturalHeight /= content.info.devicePixelRatio;
+            // }
+
             loadedImageDimensions = { naturalWidth, naturalHeight };
         }
 
@@ -167,6 +179,11 @@ export default class MImageBody extends React.Component {
     }
 
     _getThumbUrl() {
+        // FIXME: the dharma skin lets images grow as wide as you like, rather than capped to 800x600.
+        // So either we need to support custom timeline widths here, or reimpose the cap, otherwise the
+        // thumbnail resolution will be unnecessarily reduced.
+        // custom timeline widths seems preferable.
+
         const content = this.props.mxEvent.getContent();
         if (content.file !== undefined) {
             // Don't use the thumbnail for clients wishing to autoplay gifs.
@@ -175,7 +192,7 @@ export default class MImageBody extends React.Component {
             }
             return this.state.decryptedUrl;
         } else if (content.info && content.info.mimetype === "image/svg+xml" && content.info.thumbnail_url) {
-            // special case to return client-generated thumbnails for SVGs, if any,
+            // special case to return clientside sender-generated thumbnails for SVGs, if any,
             // given we deliberately don't thumbnail them serverside to prevent
             // billion lol attacks and similar
             return this.context.matrixClient.mxcUrlToHttp(
@@ -184,11 +201,49 @@ export default class MImageBody extends React.Component {
                 600 * window.devicePixelRatio,
             );
         } else {
-            return this.context.matrixClient.mxcUrlToHttp(
-                content.url,
-                800 * window.devicePixelRatio,
-                600 * window.devicePixelRatio
-            );
+            if (window.devicePixelRatio === 1.0 ||
+                    (!content.info || !content.info.w ||
+                     !content.info.h || !content.info.size))
+            {
+                // always thumbnail. it may look a bit worse, but it'll save bandwidth.
+                // which is probably desirable on a lo-dpi device anyway.
+                return this.context.matrixClient.mxcUrlToHttp(
+                    content.url,
+                    800 * window.devicePixelRatio,
+                    600 * window.devicePixelRatio
+                );
+            }
+            else {
+                // we should only request thumbnails if the image is bigger than 800x600
+                // (or 1600x1200 on retina) otherwise the image in the timeline will just
+                // end up resampled and de-retina'd for no good reason.
+                // Ideally the server would pregen 1600x1200 thumbnails in order to provide retina
+                // thumbnails, but we don't do this currently in synapse for fear of disk space.
+                // As a compromise, let's switch to non-retina thumbnails only if the original
+                // image is both physically too large and going to be massive to load in the
+                // timeline (e.g. >1MB).
+
+                if ((content.info.w > 800 * window.devicePixelRatio ||
+                     content.info.h > 600 * window.devicePixelRatio) &&
+                     content.info.size > 1*1024*1024)
+                {
+                    // image is too large physically and bytewise to clutter our timeline so
+                    // we ask for a thumbnail, despite knowing that it will be max 800x600
+                    // despite us being retina (as synapse doesn't do 1600x1200 thumbs yet).
+
+                    return this.context.matrixClient.mxcUrlToHttp(
+                        content.url,
+                        800 * window.devicePixelRatio,
+                        600 * window.devicePixelRatio
+                    );
+                }
+                else {
+                    // no width/height means we want the original image.
+                    return this.context.matrixClient.mxcUrlToHttp(
+                        content.url,
+                    };
+                }
+            }
         }
     }