Patent ID: 7218591

Claim:
An optical pickup apparatus which records or reproduces information on or from an optical recording medium, comprising: a light source for emitting light; an objective lens opposed to the optical recording medium, for focusing light originating from the light source on the information recording surface of the optical recording medium; a light separation optical element disposed between the light source and the objective lens, for transmitting or reflecting the light originating from the light source; a collimator lens disposed between the light separation optical element and the objective lens, for converting the light originating from the light source into generally parallel light; light reflecting means for reflecting part of the light emitted from the light source; optical output power detecting means for detecting the light reflected from the light reflecting means; and optical power control means for controlling the power of the light emitted from the light source in accordance with a detection output of the optical output power detecting means wherein the light reflecting means is attached to the collimator lens.