The combustion characteristics of a single droplet of diesel and bio-diesel have been investigated experimentally with varying droplet size, ambient temperature and compound ratio in a high temperature chamber. The fuels used were diesel with bio-diesel contents varied from 0% to 100%. Each experiment has been performed from 970K to 1070K by 50K intervals. Imaging with a high-speed digital camera was adopted to measure the ignition delay and flame life-time, as well as to observe micro-explosion behavior. The increase of droplet size and decrease of furnace temperature cause an increase of the ignition delay time. As the bio-diesel content decreases, the ignition delay increases and the micro-explosion behavior is strengthened. It is also confirmed that the full combustion time decreases as the micro-explosion occurred.