Patent ID: 8203794

Claim:
A variable magnification optical system comprising: a first lens group having negative refractive power; an aperture stop; and a second lens group having positive refractive power, which are sequentially arranged from the object side of the variable magnification optical system, wherein the magnification of the variable magnification optical system is changed by changing an interval between the first lens group and the second lens group in the direction of an optical axis, and the position of an image plane is corrected by moving the first lens group in the direction of the optical axis when correction of the position of the image plane becomes necessary by changing the magnification, and wherein the second lens group includes, sequentially arranged from the object side of the variable magnification optical system: an aspheric lens that is arranged on the most object side of the second lens group, and the object-side surface of the aspheric lens being an aspheric surface and a central portion of the aspheric surface being in convex form, a cemented lens composed of two lenses, wherein one of the two lenses of the cemented lens is a positive lens and the other one of the cemented lens is a negative lens, a negative lens having a concave surface facing the image side of the variable magnification optical system, and a positive lens having a convex surface facing the object side of the variable magnification optical system, and wherein the object-side surface of the aspheric lens in the second lens group is formed in such a manner that positive power decreases from the central portion of the object-side surface of the aspheric lens toward the periphery of the object-side surface of the aspheric lens, or in such a manner that an inflection point is present between the central portion of the object-side surface of the aspheric lens and the periphery of the object-side surface of the aspheric lens, and that the positive power decreases as a distance from the central portion increases between the central portion and the inflection point, and that negative power increases toward the periphery between the inflection point and the periphery, and wherein when the refractive index of the aspheric lens in the second lens group for e-line and the Abbe number of the aspheric lens for d-line are Ne5 and νd5, respectively, the following formulas (1) and (2) are satisfied: Ne 5<1.53 (1); and ν d 5>75 (2).