Patent ID: 8842210

Claim:
A zoom lens comprising: in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens group having negative refractive power; a second lens group having positive refractive power; a third lens group having negative refractive power; and a fourth lens group having positive refractive power, wherein, in zooming from a wide-angle end to a telescopic end, the first lens group moves to the object side in a manner that a distance toward the second lens group narrows, and a distance between the third lens group and the fourth lens group widens, wherein the third lens group includes a single lens or a single cemented lens, and wherein the following conditional expressions (a) and (b) are satisfied, Δ m 3/( fw×ft ) 1/2 <0.3 conditional expression (a): d 23_max/( fw×ft ) 1/2 <0.5 conditional expression (b): where Δm3: a variation amount of a distance between the second lens group and the third lens group in varying magnification, and d23_max: a maximum value of the distance between the second lens group and the third lens group in varying magnification.