diff --git a/pkg/image/apis/image/test/conversion_test.go b/pkg/image/apis/image/test/conversion_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..8bc873bceff9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/image/apis/image/test/conversion_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+package v1
+
+import (
+	"reflect"
+	"testing"
+
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/diff"
+	kapi "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api"
+
+	newer "github.com/openshift/origin/pkg/image/apis/image"
+	"github.com/openshift/origin/pkg/image/apis/image/v1"
+
+	_ "github.com/openshift/origin/pkg/image/apis/image/install"
+)
+
+func TestImageStreamStatusConversionPreservesTags(t *testing.T) {
+	in := &newer.ImageStreamStatus{
+		Tags: map[string]newer.TagEventList{
+			"v3.5.0": {},
+			"3.5.0":  {},
+		},
+	}
+	expOutVersioned := &v1.ImageStreamStatus{
+		Tags: []v1.NamedTagEventList{{Tag: "3.5.0"}, {Tag: "v3.5.0"}},
+	}
+
+	outVersioned := v1.ImageStreamStatus{Tags: []v1.NamedTagEventList{}}
+	err := kapi.Scheme.Convert(in, &outVersioned, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("got unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	if a, e := &outVersioned, expOutVersioned; !reflect.DeepEqual(a, e) {
+		t.Fatalf("got unexpected output: %s", diff.ObjectDiff(&a, e))
+	}
+
+	// convert back from v1 to internal scheme
+	out := newer.ImageStreamStatus{}
+	err = kapi.Scheme.Convert(&outVersioned, &out, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("got unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	if a, e := &out, in; !reflect.DeepEqual(a, e) {
+		t.Fatalf("got unexpected output: %s", diff.ObjectDiff(&a, e))
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/image/apis/image/v1/conversion.go b/pkg/image/apis/image/v1/conversion.go
index a5863a72754c..cef81a667f4d 100644
--- a/pkg/image/apis/image/v1/conversion.go
+++ b/pkg/image/apis/image/v1/conversion.go
@@ -231,7 +231,7 @@ func Convert_image_TagEventListArray_to_v1_NamedTagEventListArray(in *map[string
 	for key := range *in {
 		allKeys = append(allKeys, key)
 	}
-	newer.PrioritizeTags(allKeys)
+	sort.Strings(allKeys)
 
 	for _, key := range allKeys {
 		newTagEventList := (*in)[key]
diff --git a/test/cmd/images.sh b/test/cmd/images.sh
index bd15283a9984..cf0e9a1f3975 100755
--- a/test/cmd/images.sh
+++ b/test/cmd/images.sh
@@ -283,7 +283,8 @@ os::test::junit::declare_suite_end
 os::test::junit::declare_suite_start "cmd/images${IMAGES_TESTS_POSTFIX:-}/delete-istag"
 # test deleting a tag using oc delete
 os::cmd::expect_success_and_text "oc get is perl --template '{{(index .spec.tags 0).name}}'" '5.16'
-os::cmd::expect_success_and_text "oc get is perl --template '{{(index .status.tags 0).tag}}'" 'latest'
+os::cmd::expect_success_and_text "oc get is perl --template '{{(index .status.tags 0).tag}}'" '5.16'
+os::cmd::expect_success_and_text "oc describe is perl | sed -n -e '0,/^Tags:/d' -e '/^\s\+/d' -e '/./p' | head -n 1" 'latest'
 os::cmd::expect_success "oc delete istag/perl:5.16 --context='${cluster_admin_context}'"
 os::cmd::expect_success_and_not_text 'oc get is/perl --template={{.spec.tags}}' 'version:5.16'
 os::cmd::expect_success_and_not_text 'oc get is/perl --template={{.status.tags}}' 'version:5.16'