> Using 'find-alternate-file' in 'image-next-file' looks fine.
 > There are no other problems.  And revealing " **lose**"
 > while restoring windows is not a bug deal.

OK.  Please try the attached patch.  With something like

(let ((buffer (find-file-noselect "~/foo.el")))
   (with-current-buffer buffer
     (find-alternate-file "~/bar.el")
     (message "%s..%s" (buffer-last-name buffer) (buffer-file-name buffer))))

it should work fine thus fixing the image mode problem.  With

(let ((buffer (find-file-noselect "~/foo/bar.el")))
   (with-current-buffer buffer
     (find-alternate-file "~/bar/bar.el")
     (message "%s..%s" (buffer-last-name buffer) (buffer-file-name buffer))))

you can still use the old file name to restore the buffer.

martin