Patent ID: 8289625

Claim:
A zoom lens, wherein a first lens group having a negative refractive power, a second lens group having a positive refractive power, and a third lens group having the positive refractive power are disposed in order from an object side to an image side; in a phase of variable magnification from a wide-angle end to a telescopic end, said first lens group is moved and said second lens group is moved to the object side in such a way that an air interval between said first lens group and said second lens group is decreased and an air interval between said second lens group and said third lens group is increased; said first lens group is constructed in such a way that a negative lens whose both surfaces are formed in aspherical surfaces, respectively, and whose concave surface is directed to the image side, and a positive meniscus lens whose both surfaces are formed in spherical surfaces, respectively, and whose convex surface is directed to the object side are disposed in order from the object side to the image side; a fixed aperture stop is disposed in a vicinity of said second lens group; and conditional expressions (1) to (8) are fulfilled: Î½12<20;â€ƒâ€ƒ(1) n 12>1.95;â€ƒâ€ƒ(2) ( L 11Ëœ L 12)/ Lt< 0.07;â€ƒâ€ƒ(3) Lt/ft< 1.65;â€ƒâ€ƒ(4) 0.9 <Lt/Lw< 1.1;â€ƒâ€ƒ(5) Î²2 t/Î² 2 w> 4.3;â€ƒâ€ƒ(6) L 2 Gtw /{( Lt+Lw )/2}>0.45; andâ€ƒâ€ƒ(7) ( L 1 G+L 2 G+L 3 G )/{Î±Â·( ftÂ·fw ) 1/2 }<0.2â€ƒâ€ƒ(8) where Î½ 12 is an Abbe's number of said positive meniscus lens of said first lens group, n 12 is a refractive index in a d line of said positive meniscus lens of said first lens group, L 11 ËœL 12 is an air interval from a surface apex on the image side of said negative lens of said first lens group to a surface apex on the object side of said positive meniscus lens of said first lens group, Lt is a distance from the surface apex on the object side of the negative lens of said first lens group to an image capturing surface in the telescopic end, ft is a focal length of an entire lens system in the telescopic end, Lw is a distance from the surface apex on the object side of said negative lens of said first lens group to the image capturing surface in said wide-angle end, Î² 2 t is a transverse magnification of said second lens group in the telescopic end, Î² 2 w is a transverse magnification of said second lens group in the wide-angle end, L 2 Gtw is an amount of movement of said second lens group in the phase of the variable magnification from the wide-angle end to the telescopic end, L 1 G is a distance from the surface apex on the object side to the surface apex on the image side of said first lens group, L 2 G is a distance from the surface apex on the object side to the surface apex on the image side of said second lens group, L 3 G is a distance from the surface apex on the object side to the surface apex on the image side of said third lens group, Î± is a variable magnification ratio, and fw is a focal length of the entire lens system in said wide-angle end.