The present invention includes, from an object side to an image-plane side: an aperture stop with a predetermined diameter, a first lens with a positive refractive power having a convex surface on the object side, a second lens with a positive refractive power having a concave surface on the object side, and a third lens with a negative refractive power having a convex surface on the object side. The second and third lenses have aspherical surfaces on their object-side and image-plane-side surfaces. The third lens is formed with an inflection point where the curvature orientation changes within the effective diameter range of the aspherical surface on the image-plane side. An appropriate back focus is maintained while the total length of the lens system is reduced. A compact, thin, high-performance design is achieved, which effectively corrects various aberrations, especially astigmatism and distortion, and is suited for digital cameras using high-density solid-state imaging elements of one million pixels or more.