Patent ID: 7046454

Claim:
A zoom lens formed of only two lens groups, arranged along an optical axis in order from the object side as follows: a first lens group having negative refractive power; and a second lens group having positive refractive power; wherein during zooming from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end, the first lens group moves along the optical axis toward the image side and the second lens group moves along the optical axis toward the object side; the first lens group includes, arranged along the optical axis in order from the object side, a first lens component having negative refractive power that includes a first lens element, a second lens component having negative refractive power that includes a second lens element, and a third lens component that includes, in order from the object side, a third lens element having negative refractive power and a fourth lens element having positive refractive power; the second lens group includes, arranged along the optical axis in order from the object side, a first lens component having positive refractive power that includes a first lens element, a second lens component that includes, in order from the object side, a second lens element having positive refractive power and a third lens element having negative refractive power, and a third lens component having positive refractive power that includes a fourth lens element having an aspheric surface on its image side, said second lens group including only three lens components and only four lens elements; and the following condition is satisfied: 0.5<| f 1 /f 2|<0.8 where f 1 is the focal length of the first lens group, and f 2 is the focal length of the second lens group.