A variable magnification lens includes, in order from the object side, a front lens unit with positive refracting power and a rear lens unit with negative refracting power so that spacing between the front lens unit and the rear lens unit is changed to thereby vary the magnification of the variable magnification lens. In this case, the front lens unit has a negative single lens element with a concave surface facing the object side at the most object-side position and a positive single lens element at the most image-side position. In the front lens unit, only the second lens element from the image side is provided with at least one aspherical surface, and all lens elements included in the front lens unit are constructed as single lens elements arranged through air spacing. An aperture stop is interposed between the front lens unit and the rear lens unit, and the rear lens unit is composed of a negative single lens element. The variable magnification lens satisfies the following condition:

1.8flt/flw3.5

where flt is the focal length of the entire system at a telephoto position and flw is the focal length of the entire system at a wide-angle position.