diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index ec1f87d8..15378421 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
  - enh: cythonize downsample_grid (~10x speed-up)
  - enh: got rid of for-loop in map_indices_parent2child (~100x speed-up)
  - enh: slight improvement of managing manual indices in hierarchy children
+ - enh: added dtype properties for contour and trace events
  - ref: new submodule for hierarchy format
 0.56.3
  - fix: regression missing check for basin availability
diff --git a/dclab/rtdc_dataset/fmt_hdf5/events.py b/dclab/rtdc_dataset/fmt_hdf5/events.py
index 27fbb2e8..9b0c95d9 100644
--- a/dclab/rtdc_dataset/fmt_hdf5/events.py
+++ b/dclab/rtdc_dataset/fmt_hdf5/events.py
@@ -41,6 +41,10 @@ def __len__(self):
             self._length = len(self.h5group)
         return self._length
 
+    @property
+    def dtype(self):
+        return self.h5group["0"].dtype
+
     @property
     def shape(self):
         return len(self), np.nan, 2
diff --git a/dclab/rtdc_dataset/fmt_hierarchy/events.py b/dclab/rtdc_dataset/fmt_hierarchy/events.py
index 0fa15100..580527a8 100644
--- a/dclab/rtdc_dataset/fmt_hierarchy/events.py
+++ b/dclab/rtdc_dataset/fmt_hierarchy/events.py
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ def __getitem__(self, idx):
         hp = self.child.hparent
         return hp["contour"][pidx]
 
+    @property
+    def dtype(self):
+        return self.child.hparent["contour"].dtype
+
 
 class ChildNDArray(ChildBase):
     def __init__(self, child, feat):
@@ -113,6 +117,11 @@ def __getitem__(self, idx):
         hp = self.child.hparent
         return hp["trace"][self.flname][pidx]
 
+    @property
+    def dtype(self):
+        hp = self.child.hparent
+        return hp["trace"][self.flname].dtype
+
     @property
     def shape(self):
         hp = self.child.hparent
diff --git a/tests/test_rtdc_fmt_hierarchy.py b/tests/test_rtdc_fmt_hierarchy.py
index 08249e5b..a4d5c3ce 100644
--- a/tests/test_rtdc_fmt_hierarchy.py
+++ b/tests/test_rtdc_fmt_hierarchy.py
@@ -88,12 +88,33 @@ def test_hierarchy_logs():
     assert ch.logs["dclab-compress"][0] == "{"
 
 
+@pytest.mark.filterwarnings(
+    "ignore::dclab.rtdc_dataset.config.WrongConfigurationTypeWarning")
+def test_dtype_contour():
+    ds = new_dataset(retrieve_data("fmt-hdf5_mask-contour_2018.zip"))
+    assert ds["contour"].dtype == np.uint16
+    ds2 = new_dataset(ds)
+    assert ds2["contour"].dtype == np.uint16
+
+
 @pytest.mark.filterwarnings(
     "ignore::dclab.rtdc_dataset.config.WrongConfigurationTypeWarning")
 def test_dtype_mask_image():
     ds = new_dataset(retrieve_data("fmt-hdf5_image-bg_2020.zip"))
     assert ds["mask"].dtype == bool
     assert ds["image"].dtype == np.uint8
+    ds2 = new_dataset(ds)
+    assert ds2["mask"].dtype == bool
+    assert ds2["image"].dtype == np.uint8
+
+
+@pytest.mark.filterwarnings(
+    "ignore::dclab.rtdc_dataset.config.WrongConfigurationTypeWarning")
+def test_dtype_trace():
+    ds = new_dataset(retrieve_data("fmt-hdf5_fl-no-contour_2019.zip"))
+    assert ds["trace"]["fl1_raw"].dtype == np.int16
+    ds2 = new_dataset(ds)
+    assert ds2["trace"]["fl1_raw"].dtype == np.int16
 
 
 @pytest.mark.filterwarnings(