The invention discloses a lens system with a variable focus, and belongs to the technical field of optics. The lens system with the variable focus comprises a semi-reflective lens, a first holophote, a convex lens and an open container used for containing transparent liquid, wherein the open container can rotate by using the longitudinal central axis of the open container as a rotation axis, the rotating speed of the open container is adjustable, a second holophote is arranged at the bottom of the open container, and can reflect back incident light after the incident light penetrates through the transparent liquid, the incident light is firstly reflected to the surface of the transparent liquid in the open container by the semi-reflective lens, is refracted by the transparent liquid, and then is reflected by the second holophote, the reflected light is transmitted to the first holophote through the semi-reflective lens, and the first holophote reflects the light to the convex lens. The invention further discloses a zooming method of the lens system with the variable focus. The lens system with the variable focus and the zooming method of the lens system with the variable focus have the advantages of being low in implementation cost, flexible in operation, large in zooming range, capable of achieving continuous zooming and the like.