Patent ID: 7199943

Claim:
A wide-angle zoom lens system, comprising in order from an object side to an image side thereof, a first lens group of negative refracting power, a second lens group of positive refracting power, and a third lens group of positive refracting power, wherein: upon zooming from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end, at least said first lens group and said second lens group move such that a spacing between said first lens group and said second lens group becomes narrow and a spacing between said second lens group and said third lens group becomes wide, said first lens group consists of, in order from an object side thereof, a first lens subgroup SG 1 a of negative refracting power and a second lens subgroup SG 1 b of negative refracting power, upon focusing from a far object point to a near object point, said first lens subgroup SGl a and said second lens subgroup SG 1 b move toward the object side with a narrowing spacing between said first lens subgroup SG 1 b and said second lens subgroup SG 1 b , and said wide-angle zoom lens system is provided as a three-group zoom lens.