Four tobacco cultivars (Nicotiana tabacum L.), known to differ with respect to their drought resistance, were subjected to a slowly intensifying drought stress (control level: ψ_PD = ca. − 0.5 MPa; and severe stress level: ψ_PD = ca. − 2.5 MPa), and rewatered under controlled environmental conditions in programmable growth rooms. Drought stress-induced changes in the fast-phase chlorophyll fluorescence induction kinetics during the stress and recovery periods were monitored with a shutterless fluorescence measuring system with a time resolution of 10 μs (Plant Efficiency Analyser by Hansatech Instr., UK). Although chlorophyll fluorescence transients are excellent probes for measuring the effects of stress on the PSII photo-chemistry, in this article we evaluate their practical applicability in screening for drought resistance. During the entire drought stress and recovery period, the fluorescence transients followed a regular pattern of 0-J-I-P--T, with two intermediate inflections J (ca. 2 ms) and I (ca. 20 ms) appearing between the F_o and F_m levels. From the fluorescence data presented, it is clear that the single fluorescence parameter which differed the most in its response to drought stress between the drought-resistant (GS46 and ELSOMA) and drought-sensitive (TL33 and CDL28) cultivars was the F_o value normalized to F_o (t = o), which in confirmation of their drought resistance, increased dramatically in the former but not in the latter cultivars. In the interpretation of the results, however, care is expressed not to attempt to correlate changes observed in individual transient components with possible physiological causes, since these individual fluorescence parameters are influenced by an array of interacting physico-chemical and metabolic factors. The use and importance of normalized values, ratios and indices, in terms of the practical application of chlorophyll fluorescence measurements in drought-stress research is discussed.