diff --git a/src/oid.c b/src/oid.c
index b40e157..f1a6f52 100644
--- a/src/oid.c
+++ b/src/oid.c
@@ -45,63 +45,71 @@ git_oid_to_python(const git_oid *oid)
     return (PyObject*)py_oid;
 }
 
-
 int
-py_str_to_git_oid(PyObject *py_str, git_oid *oid)
+_oid_from_hex(PyObject *py_oid, git_oid *oid)
 {
     PyObject *py_hex;
-    char *hex_or_bin;
     int err;
+    char *hex;
     Py_ssize_t len;
 
-    /* Case 1: Git Oid */
-    if (PyObject_TypeCheck(py_str, (PyTypeObject*)&OidType)) {
-        git_oid_cpy(oid, &((Oid*)py_str)->oid);
-        return GIT_OID_RAWSZ;
-    }
-
-    /* Case 2: raw sha (bytes) */
-    if (PyBytes_Check(py_str)) {
-        err = PyBytes_AsStringAndSize(py_str, &hex_or_bin, &len);
+#if PY_MAJOR_VERSION == 2
+    /* Bytes (only supported in Python 2) */
+    if (PyBytes_Check(py_oid)) {
+        err = PyBytes_AsStringAndSize(py_oid, &hex, &len);
         if (err)
             return -1;
-        if (len > GIT_OID_RAWSZ) {
-            PyErr_SetObject(PyExc_ValueError, py_str);
+
+        err = git_oid_fromstrn(oid, hex, len);
+        if (err < 0) {
+            PyErr_SetObject(Error_type(err), py_oid);
             return -1;
         }
-        memcpy(oid->id, (const unsigned char*)hex_or_bin, len);
-        return len * 2;
-    }
 
-    /* Case 3: hex sha (unicode) */
-    if (PyUnicode_Check(py_str)) {
-        py_hex = PyUnicode_AsASCIIString(py_str);
+        return len;
+    }
+#endif
+
+    /* Unicode */
+    if (PyUnicode_Check(py_oid)) {
+        py_hex = PyUnicode_AsASCIIString(py_oid);
         if (py_hex == NULL)
             return -1;
-        err = PyBytes_AsStringAndSize(py_hex, &hex_or_bin, &len);
+
+        err = PyBytes_AsStringAndSize(py_hex, &hex, &len);
         if (err) {
             Py_DECREF(py_hex);
             return -1;
         }
 
-        err = git_oid_fromstrn(oid, hex_or_bin, len);
-
+        err = git_oid_fromstrn(oid, hex, len);
         Py_DECREF(py_hex);
-
         if (err < 0) {
-            PyErr_SetObject(Error_type(err), py_str);
+            PyErr_SetObject(Error_type(err), py_oid);
             return -1;
         }
+
         return len;
     }
 
     /* Type error */
-    PyErr_Format(PyExc_TypeError,
-                 "Git object id must be byte or a text string, not: %.200s",
-                 Py_TYPE(py_str)->tp_name);
+    PyErr_SetObject(PyExc_TypeError, py_oid);
     return -1;
 }
 
+int
+py_str_to_git_oid(PyObject *py_oid, git_oid *oid)
+{
+    /* Oid */
+    if (PyObject_TypeCheck(py_oid, (PyTypeObject*)&OidType)) {
+        git_oid_cpy(oid, &((Oid*)py_oid)->oid);
+        return GIT_OID_RAWSZ;
+    }
+
+    /* Hex */
+    return _oid_from_hex(py_oid, oid);
+}
+
 int
 py_str_to_git_oid_expand(git_repository *repo, PyObject *py_str, git_oid *oid)
 {
@@ -152,6 +160,8 @@ Oid_init(Oid *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kw)
     char *keywords[] = {"raw", "hex", NULL};
     PyObject *raw = NULL, *hex = NULL;
     int err;
+    char *bytes;
+    Py_ssize_t len;
 
     if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kw, "|OO", keywords, &raw, &hex))
         return -1;
@@ -166,12 +176,23 @@ Oid_init(Oid *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kw)
         return -1;
     }
 
-    /* Get the oid. */
-    if (raw != NULL)
-        err = py_str_to_git_oid(raw, &self->oid);
-    else
-        err = py_str_to_git_oid(hex, &self->oid);
+    /* Case 1: raw */
+    if (raw != NULL) {
+        err = PyBytes_AsStringAndSize(raw, &bytes, &len);
+        if (err)
+            return -1;
 
+        if (len > GIT_OID_RAWSZ) {
+            PyErr_SetObject(PyExc_ValueError, raw);
+            return -1;
+        }
+
+        memcpy(self->oid.id, (const unsigned char*)bytes, len);
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    /* Case 2: hex */
+    err = _oid_from_hex(hex, &self->oid);
     if (err < 0)
         return -1;
 
diff --git a/test/test_oid.py b/test/test_oid.py
index 22dcb0b..97c7979 100644
--- a/test/test_oid.py
+++ b/test/test_oid.py
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 # Import from the Standard Library
 from binascii import unhexlify
+from sys import version_info
 import unittest
 
 # Import from pygit2
@@ -55,6 +56,16 @@ class OidTest(utils.BareRepoTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(oid.raw, RAW)
         self.assertEqual(oid.hex, HEX)
 
+    def test_hex_bytes(self):
+        if version_info.major == 2:
+            hex = bytes(HEX)
+            oid = Oid(hex=hex)
+            self.assertEqual(oid.raw, RAW)
+            self.assertEqual(oid.hex, HEX)
+        else:
+            hex = bytes(HEX, "ascii")
+            self.assertRaises(TypeError, Oid, hex=hex)
+
     def test_none(self):
         self.assertRaises(ValueError, Oid)
 
diff --git a/test/test_repository.py b/test/test_repository.py
index 39fea40..373730e 100644
--- a/test/test_repository.py
+++ b/test/test_repository.py
@@ -48,8 +48,9 @@ from . import utils
 
 HEAD_SHA = '784855caf26449a1914d2cf62d12b9374d76ae78'
 PARENT_SHA = 'f5e5aa4e36ab0fe62ee1ccc6eb8f79b866863b87'  # HEAD^
-A_HEX_SHA = 'af431f20fc541ed6d5afede3e2dc7160f6f01f16'
-A_BIN_SHA = binascii.unhexlify(A_HEX_SHA.encode('ascii'))
+BLOB_HEX = 'af431f20fc541ed6d5afede3e2dc7160f6f01f16'
+BLOB_RAW = binascii.unhexlify(BLOB_HEX.encode('ascii'))
+BLOB_OID = Oid(raw=BLOB_RAW)
 
 
 class RepositoryTest(utils.BareRepoTestCase):
@@ -71,15 +72,15 @@ class RepositoryTest(utils.BareRepoTestCase):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, self.repo.read, 123)
         self.assertRaisesWithArg(KeyError, '1' * 40, self.repo.read, '1' * 40)
 
-        ab = self.repo.read(A_BIN_SHA)
-        a = self.repo.read(A_HEX_SHA)
+        ab = self.repo.read(BLOB_OID)
+        a = self.repo.read(BLOB_HEX)
         self.assertEqual(ab, a)
         self.assertEqual((GIT_OBJ_BLOB, b'a contents\n'), a)
 
         a2 = self.repo.read('7f129fd57e31e935c6d60a0c794efe4e6927664b')
         self.assertEqual((GIT_OBJ_BLOB, b'a contents 2\n'), a2)
 
-        a_hex_prefix = A_HEX_SHA[:4]
+        a_hex_prefix = BLOB_HEX[:4]
         a3 = self.repo.read(a_hex_prefix)
         self.assertEqual((GIT_OBJ_BLOB, b'a contents\n'), a3)
 
@@ -93,29 +94,28 @@ class RepositoryTest(utils.BareRepoTestCase):
 
     def test_contains(self):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, lambda: 123 in self.repo)
-        self.assertTrue(A_BIN_SHA in self.repo)
-        self.assertTrue(A_BIN_SHA[:10] in self.repo)
-        self.assertTrue(A_HEX_SHA in self.repo)
-        self.assertTrue(A_HEX_SHA[:10] in self.repo)
+        self.assertTrue(BLOB_OID in self.repo)
+        self.assertTrue(BLOB_HEX in self.repo)
+        self.assertTrue(BLOB_HEX[:10] in self.repo)
         self.assertFalse('a' * 40 in self.repo)
         self.assertFalse('a' * 20 in self.repo)
 
     def test_iterable(self):
         l = [ obj for obj in self.repo ]
-        self.assertTrue(A_HEX_SHA in l)
+        self.assertTrue(BLOB_HEX in l)
 
     def test_lookup_blob(self):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, lambda: self.repo[123])
-        self.assertEqual(self.repo[A_BIN_SHA].hex, A_HEX_SHA)
-        a = self.repo[A_HEX_SHA]
+        self.assertEqual(self.repo[BLOB_OID].hex, BLOB_HEX)
+        a = self.repo[BLOB_HEX]
         self.assertEqual(b'a contents\n', a.read_raw())
-        self.assertEqual(A_HEX_SHA, a.hex)
+        self.assertEqual(BLOB_HEX, a.hex)
         self.assertEqual(GIT_OBJ_BLOB, a.type)
 
     def test_lookup_blob_prefix(self):
-        a = self.repo[A_HEX_SHA[:5]]
+        a = self.repo[BLOB_HEX[:5]]
         self.assertEqual(b'a contents\n', a.read_raw())
-        self.assertEqual(A_HEX_SHA, a.hex)
+        self.assertEqual(BLOB_HEX, a.hex)
         self.assertEqual(GIT_OBJ_BLOB, a.type)
 
     def test_lookup_commit(self):