In this work we present an optical tool for characterizing the reflectance and polarimetric properties of surfaces. It uses only the image of the interference fringe pattern produced in a thin air-gap between the surface of interest and a glass surface acting as a reference. From only the contrast of the fringe pattern captured with a CCD we may obtain the reflectance of the surface, no need of measuring a reference beam. By taking two images with polarized light, we may get then the polarized reflectance R-p and R-s, but also the ellipsometric magnitude Delta, simply as a phase shift between fringes in p and s polarization. A sample of silicon with a thin layer of thermally grown silica is used to test the method. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.