Zoom optical system and image pickup apparatus provided with the same

1. A zoom optical system comprising, in order from an object side:

a prism component which has an entrance surface having negative refracting power, a reflecting surface, and an exit surface having positive refracting power; and

a lens group having positive refracting power,

wherein the prism component is arranged on an utmost object side among optical elements having refracting power in the zoom optical system,

wherein the lens group comprises two or more moving optical units which are moved when at least either zooming or focusing is carried out, and

wherein, of the two or more moving optical units, a most object-side moving optical unit has positive refracting power and another moving optical unit arranged on an image side of the most object-side moving optical unit has negative refracting power.

2. The zoom optical system according to claim 1 , wherein the prism component has negative refracting power as a whole.

3. The zoom optical system according to claim 1 , wherein the following condition (9) is satisfied:

−0.55 <ΦP·fw< 0  (9)

where a refracting power of the prism component is ΦP, and a focal length of the zoom optical system at a wide angle end is fw.

4. The zoom optical system according to claim 1 , wherein the following condition (10) is satisfied:

−1<( rP 1 −rP 2)/( rP 1 +rP 2)<−0.2  (10)

where a paraxial radius of curvature of the entrance surface of the prism component is rP1, and a paraxial radius of curvature of the exit surface of the prism component is rP2.

5. The zoom optical system according to claim 1 , wherein the entrance surface and the exit surface of the prism component are aspherical surfaces, the reflecting surface of the prism component is a plane surface, and each of the aspherical surfaces of the prism component has a shape such that refracting power becomes weak as it departs from an optical axis.

6. The zoom optical system according to claim 1 , wherein a total number of reflecting surface included in the prism component is 1.

7. The zoom optical system according to claim 1 , wherein there is no intermediate image forming surface in the prism component.

8. The zoom optical system according to claim 1 , wherein an incident light axis is deflected by a right angle as being reflected on the reflecting surface of the prism component.

9. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

the zoom optical system according to claim 1 ; and

an image pickup element arranged on an image side of the zoom optical system.

10. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

a zoom optical system; and

an image pickup element;

wherein the zoom optical system comprises:

a first group having a prism component, the prism component being arranged on an utmost object side in the zoom optical system and comprising an entrance surface having a concave surface directed toward the object side, a reflecting surface and an exit surface;

two or more moving optical units arranged on an image side of the first group and configured to be movable in zooming;

a last group arranged on an utmost image side in the zoom optical system and having positive refracting power; and

an aperture stop arranged between the first group and the last group;

wherein, when zooming is carried out from a wide angle end to a telephoto end, an entrance pupil formed by the aperture stop is moved toward the object side and an exit pupil formed by the aperture stop in an optical system arranged on the object side of the last group is moved toward the object side;

wherein the last group comprises a lens component having an object-side surface which is a first aspherical surface and an image-side surface which is a second aspherical surface, the second aspherical surface having a convex face directed toward the image side near an optical axis and having a point of inflection on a cross-section taken along the optical axis; and

wherein the first aspherical surface and the second aspherical surface satisfy the following conditions (3) to (5):

0.08<( ha 11 −ha 07)/ I< 0.3  (3)

−0.1 <ha 07 /I< 0.07  (4)

0.45 <Cb/I< 1  (5)

where ha07 is a distance, in a direction along the optical axis, from a reference plane to the first aspherical surface at a height of 35% of an effective diagonal length of the image pickup element from the optical axis; ha11 is a distance, in the direction along the optical axis, from the reference plane to the first aspherical surface at a height of 55% of the effective diagonal length of the image pickup element from the optical axis; I is 50% of the effective diagonal length of the image pickup element; and Cb is a height from the optical axis to the point of inflection of the second aspherical surface, the reference plane being determined as normal to the optical axis and tangent to the first aspherical surface at a vortex thereof and a distance from the reference plane in a direction toward an image side being given a positive value.

11. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein a total number of reflecting surface included in the prism component is 1.

12. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein an incident light axis is deflected by a right angle as being reflected on the reflecting surface of the prism component.