Patent ID: 7200849

Claim:
An optical head to be driven in a tracking direction with respect to an optical disc being rotated, the optical head comprising: a light source for reading and writing data from/on the optical disc; an optical block for supporting the light source thereon; a condenser shifter including a condenser, a movable body, a base, a focus direction drive mechanism and a tracking direction drive mechanism, wherein the condenser is used to condense light, emitted from the light source, toward the optical disc, the movable body supports the condenser thereon, the base supports the movable body elastically such that the movable body is able to shift in a focus direction and in the tracking direction, the focus direction drive mechanism is provided to shift the movable body in the focus direction and the tracking direction drive mechanism is provided to shift the movable body in the tracking direction; and a rotating mechanism for rotating the condenser shifter around a predetermined axis with respect to the optical block on at least one of a first plane, which is parallel to the tracking direction and perpendicular to the optical disc, and a second plane, which is perpendicular to the tracking direction.