The optical glass has an index of refraction (nd) greater than or equal to 1.70, an Abbé number (&ngr;d) greater than or equal to 35 and a density (&rgr;) less than or equal to 4.5 g/cm3. Optical elements made with this optical glass are especially desirable in optical data transfer applications, particularly in read-write devices with movable read-write heads. The glass compositions required to make optical glass with these properties are described.