Optical writing device and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus that forms an electrostatic latent image on an image carrier by irradiating the image carrier with a laser light and forms a toner image on a recording medium by developing the electrostatic latent image with toner, the image forming apparatus comprising:

• an optical writing device that scans the image carrier with a laser light to form electrostatic latent image on the image carrier, the optical writing device including
• a light-emitting element that emits a laser light,
• a rotating deflection unit that deflects the laser light and that performs a scanning with the laser light,
• a light-intensity detecting unit that detects a light intensity of the laser light,
• a current control unit that controls a current to be supplied to the light-emitting element in such manner that the light intensity of the laser light reaches a target light intensity, and
• an initializing unit that determines an initial current value with which the target light intensity is obtained from the light-emitting element by eliminating an influence of a noise caused by a reflected light input into the light-intensity detecting unit from the rotating deflection unit,
• wherein the laser light that the light-emitting element emits and the reflected light reflected by the rotating deflection unit in regular reflection are both incident into the light-intensity detecting unit so that the noise is generated.