Patent ID: 6922383

Claim:
An optical recording apparatus for performing recording by irradiating a light beam emitted from a light source to a recording medium, comprising: a light source driving portion for driving said light source; an emitted light power detecting portion for detecting an emitted light power from said light source; a temperature detecting portion for detecting a temperature of said light source; a light power control portion for adjusting a driving current of said light source such that a change rate of an emitted light power detection value from said emitted light power detecting portion falls within a predetermined range; a detection value storing portion for storing a driving current adjustment value from said light power control portion and a temperature detection value from said temperature detecting portion in an associated manner; and a medium determining portion for determining whether the recording medium is newly loaded or not; wherein said light power control portion adjusts the driving current value of said light source based on a stored detection value in said detection value storing portion when the temperature detection value is within a range of temperature detection values already stored in said detection value storing portion; and wherein said detection value storing portion updates the stored detection value with a new detection value when said medium determining portion determines that the recording medium is newly loaded.