To provide an optical apparatus suitable for a high resolution optical printhead.

The optical apparatus is provided with a light-emitting element 3 and a drive circuit for driving the light-emitting element. The light-emitting element 3 is constituted of: a plurality of light-emitting parts 35 divided into a plurality of groups; a plurality of common electrodes 37a and 37b connected to the light-emitting parts 35 of each group; and a plurality of discrete electrodes 38 connected to the light-emitting parts 35 which belong to different groups. The drive circuit is provided with a drive IC 4 corresponding to the light-emitting element 3, and the IC 4 is integrally provided with a first drive section to select the plurality of discrete electrodes 38 and a second drive section to select the plurality of common electrodes. On one side of the drive IC 4, a terminal DO to select the plurality of discrete electrodes 38 and a terminal CD to select the plurality of common electrodes are arranged. With this constitution, the drive IC is dealt with in the same way as a conventional static drive IC.