Patent ID: 7227698

Claim:
An optical unit including: a variable magnification optical system having a plurality of lens units, and an image sensor for receiving light that has traveled via the variable magnification optical system, the plurality of lens units having at least: from an object side toward an image side, a first lens unit having a positive optical power, a second lens unit having a negative optical power, a third lens unit having a positive optical power, and a fourth lens unit having a positive optical power, wherein, in a case of magnification variation from a wide-angle end position to a telephoto end position, at least the first lens unit moves from the image side to the object side to thereby change at least one gap between the lens units, wherein conditional formula (1) below is satisfied: 3< TL 3/ Y′< 8 Conditional formula (1), where TL 3 represents an axial thickness of the third lens unit; and Y′ represents a height from an optical axis on an image surface of the image sensor; wherein an object side surface of a most object side lens element included in the third lens unit and located at a most object side is aspherical; and wherein the most object side lens element included in the third lens unit forms a cemented lens element by being cemented with another lens element adjacent thereto on the image side.