An optical head is provided with: an objective-lens-use opening that determines an aperture of the objective lens; a light-source light-quantity controlling opening that aperture-controls light that has been separated by the light separation device; a light detector that receives light that has been aperture-controlled by the light-source light-quantity controlling opening; and a light detector that receives light that has been reflected by the optical recording medium, and has an arrangement in which: the length of the optical light path from the spherical aberration correcting device to the objective-lens-use opening is made virtually the same as a length of the optical light path from the spherical aberration correcting device to the light-source light-quantity controlling opening, and the aperture of the light-source light-quantity controlling opening has virtually the same size as the aperture of the objective-lens-use opening. The objective of the present invention is to provide an optical head in which a signal outputted from the light quantity detection device is unchanged even when the spherical aberration correcting device is driven so that by using this signal, the quantity of light from the light source is set to an appropriate value.