Patent ID: 7859765

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus comprising, in order from its object side: a zoom lens; and an image pickup element that converts an optical image formed by the zoom lens into an electrical signal, wherein the zoom lens comprises, in order from the object side, a first lens unit having a negative refracting power, a second lens unit having a negative refracting power, a third lens unit having a positive refracting power, and a fourth lens unit having a negative refracting power, during zooming from the wide angle end to the telephoto end, a distance between the first lens unit and the second lens unit changes, a distance between the second lens unit and the third lens unit changes, and a distance between the third lens unit and the fourth lens unit changes, the distance between the second lens unit and the third lens unit being smaller at the telephoto end than at the wide angle end, and the first lens unit comprises a reflecting surface that deflects the optical path, and the zoom lens satisfies the following condition (1): −100< fg 4 /ihw<− 2.5 (1) where fg4 is a focal length of the fourth lens unit, and ihw is the maximum image height at the wide angle end, wherein if an effective image pickup area of the image pickup element is variable, ihw is the largest value among values it can assume.