Patent ID: 8456502

Claim:
An optical scanner, which scans at least one scanned face by a light beam, comprising: a light source having a plurality of light emitting points; an optical system before a light deflector configured to form a plurality of light beams from the light source; a light deflector configured to deflect the light beams via the optical system before a light deflector and scan the deflected light beams; and a scanning optical system configured to focus on the scanned face the light beams deflected and scanned by a deflection face of the light deflector, the optical system before a light deflector including the following elements arranged in order from the light source: a coupling lens, a first optical element having a negative power at least in a deflecting and scanning vertical direction, wherein the coupling lens is configured to guide the light beam from the light source to the first optical element, a second optical element having a power only in a deflecting and scanning direction and a third optical element having a power only in the deflecting and scanning vertical direction, wherein the second optical element and the scanning optical system satisfy the following condition, where |φm 2| is an absolute value of a power of the deflecting and scanning direction of the second optical element and |φF m| is an absolute value of a power of the deflecting and scanning direction of the scanning optical system in a central portion of the deflecting and scanning direction, |φm 2|<|φF m|.