Synchrotron diffraction contrast tomography (DCT) is for the first time used to characterize recrystallized grains in partially recrystallized Al. The positions, orientations and 3D shapes of amp;gt;900 recrystallized grains are reconstructed within a gauge volume. The results are compared with those obtained using electron backscattered diffraction based on a statistical analysis. It is found that recrystallized grains with size larger than 10 mu m, corresponding to similar to 98% of the total recrystallized volume of the sample, are well characterized by DCT. The advantages of DCT for recrystallization studies and new possibilities with DCT on new generation synchrotron sources are discussed. (C) 2018 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.