Variable magnification optical system and optical apparatus

A variable magnification optical system comprising, in order from an object side toward an image side:

• a first lens group having a positive refractive power which is disposed at a position closest to the object side;
• a variable magnification lens group which is disposed at a position closest to the object side among lens groups having a negative refractive power and moves during changing magnification;
• an intermediate group including at least one lens group;
• and
• a final lens group having a positive refractive power which is disposed at a position closest to the image side,
• wherein the variable magnification lens group, the intermediate group, the final lens group are continuously disposed,
• a distance between lens groups adjacent to each other during changing magnification in a direction of an optical axis changes, and
• at least one LA lens is included which satisfies the following Conditional Expressions (1A), (2A), and (3A), and is located from the variable magnification lens group to the intermediate group, in a case where a refractive index at a d line of the LA lens is set to NdA, an Abbe number of the LA lens on the basis of the d line is set to vdA, and a partial dispersion ratio of the LA lens between a g line and an F line is set to θgFA,
• 1.92<NdA<2.3 (1A)
• 26<vdA<28.5 (2A)
• 0.62<θgFA+0.00162×vdA<0.9 (3A).