Plane waves are usually used as illumination beams during recording and reconstruction processes of the holographic technique for the measurement of particulates. Their usability, however, is restricted by a low diffraction efficiency of the hologram and a large error of the measurement. In this paper, we derive the equations describing recording and reconstruction processes of holograms using sphere wave illumination and compare the two holographic techniques with respect of hologram modulation, diffraction efficiency and the error of measurement. Analysis and experiments show tiiat illumination with sphere waves is better than with plane waves.