A finite optical system that a laser beam from a light source is allowed
to be directly incident on an objective lens without passing a collimate
lens is employed. The reference position of the objective lens is set so
that converged light from the objective lens forms a focal point on a
recording layer remoter from the light source of two recording layers in
an optical disk. The objective lens moves in a direction of the light
source side from the reference position to perform a focusing operation
and read information recorded on the recording layer nearer to the light
source.