Patent 7433131 was granted and assigned to Sony on October, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Provided is a zoom lens allows size reduction in the depth direction and compactness. The zoom lens includes a plurality of lens groups (GR1 to GR5) and performs zooming by changing an inter-group distance. Of the plurality of lens groups (GR1 to GR5), a first lens group (GR1) on the most object side has a positive refractive power and is fixed. A reflection member for bending an optical axis is provided in the first lens group (GR1) and the reflection member is formed of a rectangular prism (P) having a negative refractive power. In addition, an imaging apparatus using the zoom lens is provided.