Experimental results of the near zone diffraction field of circular and elliptical apertures and of the infinite slit are presented. The investigations were made on apertures which were illuminated by a plane polarized electromagnetic wave and whose characteristic dimensions were varied over a considerable range with respect to the wavelength of the incident radiation.Most of the measurements are compared with predictions from recently published approximate theories and in a few cases with exact solutions. In general the agreement between theory and experiment is found to be satisfactory. Some of the discrepancies are discussed.