In order to understand the macroscopic response of polycrystalline structural materials to loading, it is frequently essential to know the spatial distribution of strain as well as the variation of micro-texture on the scale of 100 μm. The methods must be nondestructive, however, if the three-dimensional evolution of strain is to be studied. This paper describes an approach to high resolution synchrotron x-ray diffraction tomography of polycrystalline materials. Results from model samples of randomly-packed, millimeter-sized pieces of Si wafers and of similarly sized single-crystal Al blocks have been obtained which indicate that polychromatic beams collimated to 30 μm diameter can be used to determine the depth of diffracting volume elements within ± 70 μm. The variation in the two-dimensional distribution of diffracted intensity with changing sample to detector separation is recorded on image storage plates and used to infer the depth of diffracting volume elements.