JD, you seem to be on Windows. Is Laz 32bit or 64 bit? You mention in the first post that you migrated to laz-trunk/fpc3.2. I tested laz-trunk/fpc3.04, laz-trunk/fpc-fixes, laz trunk/fpc-trunk, and laz-fixes/fpc3.2 (all 32 bit on Win10, 64bit) - no issue so far when I follow your steps described in reply #7. When I load the demo projects of reply #4 and #7 I do not get an error message, but the image component is empty.
I have no idea what's wrong with your system... The easiest remedy might be to try a clean rebuild of fpc and lazarus.
@winni (regarding reply #5): The project is ok. JD uses laz trunk, and therefore some xml files are written in a different syntax and thus are not understood by older versions. The symptom is always an apparently empty project. In the transition time until Laz 2.2 (or current trunk) is release and fully established, pulished files should be saved with the checed option "Maximize compatibility of project files (lpi and lps)" (in "Project options" > "Miscellaneous") -- this will cause a lot of trouble I fear...