A pickup of an optical reproducing/recording apparatus having a laser diode generating an optical signal with a current power value, and a laser diode power control device automatically controlling an output of the laser diode. The laser diode power control device has a sampler sampling the current power value of the optical signal from the laser diode, an operation unit outputting a target output value based on a comparison of the sampled current power value and a basic power value depending on a type of medium that is to receive the output of the laser diode, and a controller controlling the output of the laser diode based on the target output value.