Provided is an optical system, which retains enhanced optical performance at any object distance, and has compact and light-weight focus lens units. Provided is an optical system including a plurality of lens units, in which an interval between adjacent lens units changes during focusing, the optical system including: a positive lens unit arranged closest to an object side; first and second focus lens units having negative refractive powers configured to move during focusing; and an intermediate lens unit having a positive refractive power and arranged between the first and second focus lens units. The first and second focus lens units are configured to move toward an image side during focusing.

A zoom lens is provided. The zoom lens includes a first lens group, a second lens group, a third lens group and an aperture stop. The second lens group is disposed between the first lens group and the third lens group. The aperture stop is disposed between the first lens group and the second lens group. When the zoom lens zooms, the aperture stop is fixed without moving and the first lens group correspondingly moves.

A zoom lens has a four-group zoom configuration, in order from the object side to the image side, consisting of negative, positive, positive, and positive refractive power. The zoom lens carries out zooming from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end mainly by changing the distance between the third lens group and the fourth lens group. Also, the distance between the second lens group and the third lens group may be decreased in the zooming. Focusing is carried out mainly by moving the second lens group along the optical axis. Such a zoom lens is thin and small in size, and has a great imaging performance.

A zoom optical system according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a first lens group, a second lens group, a third lens group, and a fourth lens group which are sequentially arranged in a direction from a subject side to an image side, wherein each of the first lens group to the fourth lens group includes at least two lenses, the second lens group and the third lens group are movable, and an effective focal length (EFL) in a wide angle mode is defined by an expression below.

[00001]$5.5<\frac{{\mathrm{EFL}}_{\mathrm{wide}}}{H_{\mathrm{image}D}}<6.5.$

Here, EFL.sub.wide is the EFL of the zoom optical system in the wide angle mode, and H.sub.imageD is a half value of a diagonal length of a pixel area of an image sensor.

A projection optical system (10) projects from a first image plane (5) on a reducing side to a second image plane (6) on an enlargement side. The projection optical system (10) includes a first optical system (11) that includes a plurality of lenses and forms a first intermediate image (51) formed inside the first optical system (11) by light incident from the reducing side into a second intermediate image (52) on the enlargement side of the first optical system (11); a second optical system (12) that includes a first reflective surface (M1) with positive refractive power which is positioned further to the enlargement side than the second intermediate image (52); and a glass block (30) that is disposed between the first optical system (11) and the first reflective surface (M1), the glass block (30) passing light rays from the first optical system (11) to the second intermediate image (52).

An imaging optical system includes lens group Gm located on that is closest to an object among lens groups in which a distance between the lens groups changes during zooming, the lens groups having negative power. Lens group Gm includes, in order from the object side toward an image side, lens element LGmF1 having the negative power, lens element LGmF2 having the negative power, both surfaces of lens element LGmF2 having an aspherical shape, and at least two lens elements having power. The present disclosure provides the imaging optical system having good various aberrations such as spherical aberration, astigmatism, and distortion and an imaging device and a camera system that are provided with the imaging optical system.

An imaging optical system includes lens group Gm located on that is closest to an object among lens groups in which a distance between the lens groups changes during zooming, the lens groups having negative power. Lens group Gm includes, in order from the object side toward an image side, lens element LGmF1 having the negative power, lens element LGmF2 having the negative power, both surfaces of lens element LGmF2 having an aspherical shape, and at least two lens elements having power. The present disclosure provides the imaging optical system having good various aberrations such as spherical aberration, astigmatism, and distortion and an imaging device and a camera system that are provided with the imaging optical system.

A zoom lens system includes a positive first lens group, a negative second lens group, a positive intermediate lens group, and a negative image-side lens group. Upon zooming from the short to long focal length extremities, a distance between the first and second lens groups increases, and a distance between the second and intermediate lens groups decreases. The image-side lens group consists of two lens elements. The following conditions are satisfied:

−6.0<f1/f2<−4.3,

−5.4<f1/fIMG<−3.9,

and

0.3<D2/fw<3.0.

f1, f2 and fIMG designate the focal lengths of the first, second and the image-side lens groups, respectively. D2 designates a distance between the second lens group and the intermediate lens group, at the short focal length extremity. fw designates the focal length of the zoom lens system at the short focal length extremity.

A projection system includes first lens group having negative power and second lens group having positive power sequentially arranged from enlargement side toward reduction side. first lens group includes first-a lens group having negative power, first-b lens group located at reduction side of first-a lens group and having negative power, and first-c lens group located at reduction side of first-b lens group and having positive power. Sum of number of lenses of first-a lens group and number of lenses of first-b lens group is smaller than or equal to three. Projection system satisfies each of Conditional Expressions (1) and (2) below,

BF/F>5.0  (1)

0.3<|F/F1ab|<1.0  (2)

where F represents the focal length of the overall projection system, BF represents the back focal length in air, and F1ab represents the combined focal length of the first-a lens group and the first-b lens group.

A projection system includes first lens group having negative power and second lens group having positive power sequentially arranged from enlargement side toward reduction side. first lens group includes first-a lens group having negative power, first-b lens group located at reduction side of first-a lens group and having negative power, and first-c lens group located at reduction side of first-b lens group and having positive power. Sum of number of lenses of first-a lens group and number of lenses of first-b lens group is smaller than or equal to three. Projection system satisfies each of Conditional Expressions (1) and (2) below,

BF/F>5.0  (1)

0.3<|F/F1ab|<1.0  (2)

where F represents the focal length of the overall projection system, BF represents the back focal length in air, and F1ab represents the combined focal length of the first-a lens group and the first-b lens group.