To provide an image pickup apparatus advantageous in making it compact by providing a zoom lens that is made compact and secures an adequate zoom ratio and optical characteristics as demanded.

The image pickup apparatus has a zoom lens and an image pickup element disposed on the image side of the zoom lens that converts an optical image formed by the zoom lens into an electrical signal. The zoom lens includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a negative first lens group, a negative second lens group, a positive third lens group, and a negative fourth lens group. During zooming from a wide angle end to a telephoto end, a distance between the first lens group and the second lens group changes, a distance between the second lens group and the third lens group changes, and a distance between the third lens group and the fourth lens group changes, the distance between the second lens group and the third lens group being smaller at the telephoto end than at the wide angle end. The first lens group includes a reflecting surface that reflects an optical path, and the fourth lens group satisfies the following condition (1): -100fg4/ihw-2.5.