The well-known advantages of electron holography are the availability
of amplitude and phase of the electron wave and the resulting improvem
ent of lateral resolution by correction of the coherent aberrations. T
he noise properties of the holographic method are very important: what
are the smallest amplitude and phase differences detectable well abov
e noise level in the reconstructed wave? Results of statistical evalua
tions collected from experimental holograms are compared with the exis
ting theory.