A zoom lens system according to the present invention includes a first lens group with negative refractive power, a second lens group with positive refractive power, a third lens group with positive refractive power, and a fourth lens group with negative refractive power which are arranged in turn from the object side toward the image side, and the zoom lens system is formed so that, in performing a zooming operation from the wide angle end position to the telephoto end position, the first lens group keeps still, the distance between the first and second lens groups becomes small, the distance between the second and third lens groups becomes wide, and the distance between the third and fourth lens groups becomes small.