A special gasdynamic shock tube process in combination with a Mie light scattering method is used to study growth and subsequent evaporation of monodispersed droplets carried in argon or air. The droplets are generated by homogeneous nucleation and observed in the mu m range (0.15-6 pm radius). Droplet concentrations range from 10-1000 mm(-3). Four different substances, i.e. water, n-propanol, methanol and n-hexane are tested for a wide range of properties. A model covering the entire range between large (Kn >> 1) and small Knudsen numbers (Kn << 1) is applied to interpret the experimental data. Excellent agreement is found.