Some issues in recording and reconstruction of near distance digital holography are discussed where the recording distance is shorter than the Fresnel diffraction distance. The compensation of the higher-order phase in recording and reconstruction of in a hologram is analyzed. It is indicated that when the size of CCD and recording distance are determined, and some conditions of the object size and position of the spherical reference light are satisfied, the effect of higher-order phase can be compensated to small enough, even if the recording distance is shorter than the Fresnel diffraction distance. The higher-order phase compensation condition and numerical reconstruction equation are derived. Under the compensation condition, the fast Fourier transform algorithm can be used in numerical reconstruction. Experimental results are accordant with analysis conclusions. A correction method of difference between actual reference wave-front with the spherical reference wave-front in reconstructing is introduced.