To provide a variable power optical system which has a high variable power ratio in spite of being high in performance and compact and further has a blurring correction function, and an imaging apparatus equipped therewith.

The variable power optical system having the blurring correction function and forming the optical image of an object on an imaging device so as to vary power includes a first lens group Gr1 having positive power, a second lens group Gr2 having negative power, a third lens group Gr3 having positive power, and at least one following lens group having positive power or negative power in order from an object side. When varying the power from a wide angle end (W) to a telephoto end (T), the first lens group Gr1 moves to the object side (m1), the second lens group Gr2 is positionally fixed (m2) and the third lens group Gr3 moves to the object side (m3). When dividing the third lens group Gr3 to an object side part and an image side part, the image side part is set as a blurring correction group GrV and made to be eccentric in a perpendicular direction to an optical axis AX, whereby blurring is corrected.

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