diff --git a/CHANGELOG.txt b/CHANGELOG.txt
index a5f3b30..fe4833b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.txt
+++ b/CHANGELOG.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+  FIXED: Setting MODELTRANSLATION_TRANSLATION_FILES should be optional.
+         (resolves issue 86)
+
+
 v0.4.0-alpha1
 =============
 Date: 2012-10-12
diff --git a/modeltranslation/settings.py b/modeltranslation/settings.py
index 64480b9..763ca10 100644
--- a/modeltranslation/settings.py
+++ b/modeltranslation/settings.py
@@ -13,9 +13,6 @@ if TRANSLATION_REGISTRY:
     TRANSLATION_FILES += (TRANSLATION_REGISTRY,)
     warn('The setting MODELTRANSLATION_TRANSLATION_REGISTRY is deprecated, '
          'use MODELTRANSLATION_TRANSLATION_FILES instead.', DeprecationWarning)
-if not TRANSLATION_FILES:
-    raise ImproperlyConfigured(
-        "You haven't set the MODELTRANSLATION_TRANSLATION_FILES setting yet.")
 
 AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES = [l[0] for l in settings.LANGUAGES]
 DEFAULT_LANGUAGE = getattr(settings, 'MODELTRANSLATION_DEFAULT_LANGUAGE', None)