Image pickup apparatus provided with zoom lens

An image pickup apparatus comprising, in order from an object side:

• an aperture member having an opening section;
• a zoom lens comprising a plurality of lens units, a magnification of the zoom lens being changed by a change of distances between the plurality of lens units;
• and
• an image pickup device,
• wherein a flare stop that has an opening section having a set shape is integrated with the most object-side lens unit in the plurality of the lens units,
• wherein, in a wide-angle position, the aperture member does not intercept a wide-angle-position maximum effective light beam and, in a telephoto position, the aperture member intercepts a part of a telephoto-position maximum effective light beam, and
• wherein, in the wide-angle position, the flare stop does not intercept the wide-angle-position maximum effective light beam having passed through the opening section of the aperture member and, in the telephoto position, the flare stop intercepts a light ray that is included in the telephoto-position maximum effective light beam before reaching the aperture member but that strikes an edge of the opening section of the aperture member to pass through the opening section of the aperture member as scattered,
• the wide-angle-position maximum effective light beam being defined as a collective of all possible image-forming light beams travelling through the zoom lens in the wide-angle position to be received on an effective image pickup area of the image pickup device where any interception by the aperture member or by the flare stop is not taken into account,
• the telephoto-position maximum effective light beam being defined as a collective of all possible image-forming light beams travelling through the zoom lens in the telephoto position to be received on the image pickup area of the image pickup device where any interception by the aperture member or by the flare stop is not taken into account.