To provide a zoom lens that is compact and has high optical performance while having a relatively high variable power ratio.

The zoom lens ZL has a first lens group G1 of negative refractive power, a second lens group G2 of positive refractive power, and a third lens group G3 of positive refractive power. If the focal distance of the zoom lens ZL at the telephoto end is denoted as ft, the focal distance of it at the wide-angle end is denoted as fw; the interval between the first and second lens groups G1 and G2 at the telephoto end is Dt12 and the interval between the first and second lens groups G1 and G2 at the wide-angle end is Dw12, the conditional expression: 0.15(ftDt12)/(fwDw12)0.3 is satisfied. If the radius of curvature of the object-side lens face of the first positive lens L21 is R31 and the curvature radius of the object-side lens face of the second positive lens L22 of the second lens group G2 is R41, conditional expression by 0.5|R31/R41|2.0 is satisfied.