Patent ID: 8817060

Claim:
An optical device comprising: a light source that includes a plurality of light emitting spots that output laser beams, respectively; a separating unit that separates each of the laser beams output from the plurality of light emitting spots into a monitor beam and a scanning beam; a light-quantity measuring unit that measures a light quantity of the monitor beam; a storage unit in which respective drive currents with which the plurality of light emitting spots of the light source output a prescribed light quantity of laser beams in factory adjustment are stored in advance on a channel-by-channel basis; a light-source control unit that drives the light source with the drive currents stored in the storage unit and causes the plurality of light emitting spots to output the laser beams; and a determining unit that determines whether or not the light source operates properly based on the prescribed light quantity, which is a value less than a maximum rated light quantity of a laser beam emitted from the light source, and the light quantity of the light source driven with the drive currents according to the channel-by-channel basis and measured by the light-quantity measuring unit.