Patent ID: 7646547

Claim:
A three unit zoom lens comprising, in order from an object side thereof: a first lens unit having a negative refracting power; a second lens unit having a positive refracting power; and a third lens unit having a refracting power, wherein during zooming from a wide angle end to a telephoto end, a distance between the first lens unit and the second lens unit decreases, and a distance between the second lens unit and the third lens unit changes, the first lens unit comprises a negative lens component having a negative refracting power and including, in order from the object side, a negative lens having a concave surface directed toward an image side and a positive lens having a convex surface directed toward the object side, the total number of lens components included in the first lens unit is one, the second lens unit comprises at least one negative lens and a plurality of positive lenses, at least three lenses among the lenses in the second lens unit are cemented to adjacent lenses, the total number of lens components included in the second lens unit is two or less, the third lens unit comprises a lens component composed of two or fewer lenses, and the total number of lens components included in the third lens unit is one, where the term “lens component” refers to a lens member whose surfaces that are in contact with air on an optical axis include only two surfaces, one being an object side surface and the other being an image side surface.