diff --git a/src/lerobot/annotations/steerable_pipeline/frames.py b/src/lerobot/annotations/steerable_pipeline/frames.py
index 8602d2a28..a2f2e4897 100644
--- a/src/lerobot/annotations/steerable_pipeline/frames.py
+++ b/src/lerobot/annotations/steerable_pipeline/frames.py
@@ -126,7 +126,16 @@ class VideoFrameProvider:
         from lerobot.datasets.dataset_metadata import LeRobotDatasetMetadata  # noqa: PLC0415
 
         self._meta = LeRobotDatasetMetadata(repo_id="local", root=self.root)
-        keys = list(self._meta.video_keys or [])
+        # ``camera_keys`` covers both image- and video-stored cameras
+        # (``video_keys`` is video-only). Some datasets declare cameras with
+        # ``dtype=image``, which would otherwise look empty here and silently
+        # disable Module 3 even though the videos are there.
+        keys = list(getattr(self._meta, "camera_keys", None) or self._meta.video_keys or [])
+        # Last-resort fallback: if metadata didn't surface anything but the
+        # caller explicitly named a camera (``--vlm.camera_key=...``), trust
+        # them — the key is by definition known to exist on the dataset.
+        if not keys and self.camera_key:
+            keys = [self.camera_key]
         self._camera_keys = keys
         if self.camera_key is None:
             self.camera_key = keys[0] if keys else None
diff --git a/src/lerobot/annotations/steerable_pipeline/modules/general_vqa.py b/src/lerobot/annotations/steerable_pipeline/modules/general_vqa.py
index 2fe71d5dc..56174bc34 100644
--- a/src/lerobot/annotations/steerable_pipeline/modules/general_vqa.py
+++ b/src/lerobot/annotations/steerable_pipeline/modules/general_vqa.py
@@ -107,9 +107,20 @@ class GeneralVqaModule:
         )
         cameras = self._target_cameras()
         if not cameras:
-            # No camera available — keep behaviour parity with previous
-            # text-only stub: emit nothing rather than producing untagged
-            # rows that would fail validation.
+            # No camera available — emit nothing rather than producing
+            # untagged rows that would fail validation. Surface a loud one-
+            # time warning so this is never silently a no-op.
+            if not getattr(self, "_warned_no_camera", False):
+                import logging  # noqa: PLC0415
+
+                logging.getLogger(__name__).warning(
+                    "Module 3 (VQA) found no cameras on the frame provider — "
+                    "every episode will emit zero VQA rows. Check that the "
+                    "dataset declares observation.images.* features in "
+                    "meta/info.json; passing --vlm.camera_key=<key> at the "
+                    "CLI now also seeds the cameras list as a fallback."
+                )
+                self._warned_no_camera = True
             staging.write("module_3", [])
             return