A zoom lens includes three lens groups. The first lens group from the object side has negative refractive power and is formed of a lens component having negative refractive power and a lens element having positive refractive power. The second lens group from the object side has positive refractive power and is formed of two lens components, an object-side lens component that is a glass lens element with a convex surface on the optical axis on the object side and having an aspheric surface and an image-side lens component that includes a cemented surface and an image-side concave surface. The third lens group consists of a biconvex lens component. Only the first and second lens groups move along the optical axis for zooming. The zoom lens may be formed of only six lens elements, includes at least one aspheric surface, and satisfies specified conditions for compactness and aberration correction.