Three-group zoom lens

A zoom lens formed of only three lens groups, in order from the object side, as follows:

• a first lens group having negative refractive power;
• a second lens group having positive refractive power;
• and
• a third lens group having positive refractive power;
• wherein
• the first lens group includes, in order from the object side, a negative lens component and a positive lens component;
• the second lens group includes, in order from the object side, a biconvex lens component and a biconcave lens component that is intimately bonded to said biconvex lens component, a meniscus lens component with its convex lens surface on its object side, and the second lens group further includes a diaphragm for controlling the amount of light that passes through the zoom lens;
• the third lens group is stationary during zooming and includes a lens component having positive refractive power, and the third lens group moves toward the object side from a reference position during focusing from infinity to a near point;
• at least one lens component of each of the first and second lens groups includes a lens surface of aspheric shape;
• the first and the second lens groups are moved so that the first and second lens groups become closer together and so that the second and third lens groups become farther apart during zooming from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end;
• and the following condition is satisfied:
• fw/|f2-f<0.2
• where
• fwis the focal length of the zoom lens at the wide-angle end, and
• f2-f is the focal length of the image-side lens component of the second lens group.