Characteristics of holographic image formation are discussed by the ray-tracing method. As a result, it is shown that a paraxial point image is formed only in a holographic system satisfying the stigmatic condition. In general, the astigmatic line images which are not necessarily perpendicular to each other, are formed. The theory of image formation discussed by Champagne [J. Opt. Soc. Amer. 47 (1967) 51] which is most widely used, is applicable only to the following systems, i. e., 1) an approximate Gabor type in-line holography system, 2) a system in which an object point, a reference light source and an illuminating light source are all located in a meridional plane, 3) the stigmatic imaging system satisfying Champagne's formula for an image distance.
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