1. A zoom lens comprising: in order from an object side thereof, a first lens group having a negative refractive power, the first lens group comprising in order from an object side thereof, a negative lens having at least one aspherical surface and having a concave surface on an image side thereof, and a positive meniscus lens having a convex surface on the object side thereof; a stop; a second lens group having a positive refractive power; and a third lens group having a positive refractive power, wherein a magnification of the zoom lens is varied from a wide angle end to a telephoto end by changing a space between the first lens group and the second lens group and a space between the second lens group and the third lens group, and the zoom lens satisfies conditional expressions: 
 N2>1.95   (1) 
 0.2< Da/|fl|< 0.3   (2) 
 2.0<| fl/fw< 3.0   (3) wherein N 2 is a refractive index of the positive meniscus lens of the first lens group at the the d-line; Da is a distance along an optical axis between an object side apex of the negative lens and an image side apex of the positive meniscus lens of the first lens group; fl is a focal length of the first lens group; and fw is a focal length of the zoom lens at the wide angle end.