Patent ID: 7515168

Claim:
A laser scanning optical apparatus wherein a plural number of beams are deflected by a single deflector and scanned on corresponding receiving surfaces of respective photosensitive drums, via a scanning optical system, wherein: the scanning optical system comprises exclusive optical elements for exclusively transmitting respective ones of the beams, the exclusive optical elements positioned in an end portion of the scanning optical system, such that each respective beam is transmitted directly from respective ones of the exclusive optical elements to respective photosensitive drums, each of the exclusive optical elements having at least one non-plane surface; and the exclusive optical elements are located such that at least one of the exclusive optical elements is at a distance from the receiving surface on which the beam transmitted by the at least one of the exclusive optical elements is scanned and that another of the exclusive optical elements is at another distance from the receiving surface on which the beam transmitted by the another of the exclusive optical elements is scanned.