Time and spatially resolved studies have been made of imploding shock waves in a 20 cm hemispherical chamber filled with 2H2+O2mixtures at high initial pressures (7–56 atm). Implosion pulse durations and maximum temperatures were found to be (10–4) &mgr;sec and (4500–6000) K, respectively. Peak pressure for a 7 atm initial pressure experiment was estimated to be (12.5±1.0) ×103atm. The focus of the imploding shock was examined by using an image converter camera in both streak and framing modes. No major instabilities or symmetry defects were noted. The results may be of interest for laser fusion applications.