Patent ID: 7274516

Claim:
A zoom lens comprising: a first group of lenses having a positive refracting power; a second group of lenses having a negative refracting power; a third group of lenses having a positive refracting power; and a fourth group of lenses having a positive refracting power, the first through fourth groups of lenses being formed in that order from an object side toward an image surface side, wherein the zoom lens is configured such that zooming is performed by moving the second group of lenses and the fourth group of lenses along an optical axis, and the first group of lenses comprises: a group of positive lenses having a positive refracting power; and an optical path bending member that bends an optical path, the group of positive lenses and the optical path bending member being formed in that order from the object side toward the image surface side; wherein a relation of d/fw<0.194 is satisfied where d is the maximum image height on an image face and fw is the focal length of all lens systems constituting the zoom lens at a wide angle end.