TYPO3 Core

If you have translated TCA records and some fields in them with l10n_mode set to "exclude" (e.g. for images that don't need to be translated) they are only returned by the images getter in the domain model of extbase in a non-default language if the config.sys_language_mode is set to "content_fallback".
If you set config.sys_language_mode to "strict", which you might need, if you don't want untranslated records to display in a non-default language, the images are not returned any more in a non-default language. The images getter returns an empty \TYPO3\CMS\Extbase\Persistence\ObjectStorage in this case. The rest of the strict behaviour works though. Untranslated records are not returned any more.
So I assume the strict behaviour is taken into account a bit too far here and should not be considered for fields in translated records with l10n_mode set to "exclude".
If there is more info to help to clear this up necessary, please tell me.