Patent 6844985 was granted and assigned to Pentax on January, 2005 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An endoscope objective optical system includes a negative first lens group, a positive second lens group, a positive third lens group, and a negative fourth lens group, in this order from the object. The positive second lens group and the positive third lens group are arranged to move while the object distance is varied without changing the overall length from the first lens group to an imaging plane. Due to this arrangement, the focal length of the endoscope objective optical system is varied while maintaining an in-focus state.