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I recently lent my 50mm f/1.8 lens to a friend who owns a Canon EOS 1000D. Afetrwards he told me that the camera had deactivated autofocus when he switched back to his kit lens (18-55). Is this possible? It sounded very strange to me...

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Corrected title. And welcome to photo.SE! \$\endgroup\$
    – Reid
    Oct 31, 2010 at 19:43

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Maybe he accidentally set the AF/MF switch to manual focus.

Edit: It's not entirely clear what's happening here. In your title, you say "autozoom," but the body says "autofocus." I'm assuming the former is a mistake, and the issue is what you state in the content of your question.

What you are asking is, "is it possible for AF to be disabled when switching lenses?" And the answer to that question is yes. However, what I think you're actually asking is "My friend says the AF mechanism on his camera broke when he used my lens. Is that possible?" And the answer is that it's extremely unlikely.

The AF/MF mechanism on that camera is controlled by a switch on the lens. Both the 18-55mm and 50mm lenses have these switches. The most likely scenario is that he simply bumped the switch when changing lenses, and it's in the MF position, in which case flipping it back to AF will solve his problem.

The second-most likely scenario is that the contacts on either the lens or body are dirty, which is preventing the body from knowing what position the switch is in. And the least likely is that your lens fried the guts of his camera just enough to make AF stop working, but not enough to break anything else.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I thought so at first, but my friend says he had to activate something through the menus. \$\endgroup\$
    – Carles
    Oct 31, 2010 at 19:27
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    \$\begingroup\$ You say he had to change something in the menus. I have a Rebel XSi (450D), which is very similar (and I have used the 1000D before). The only AF related thing I see in the menus is the kind of AF to use: One shot, AI Focus, and AI Servo. It sounds like your friend is confused. \$\endgroup\$
    – ieure
    Oct 31, 2010 at 19:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ I think I agree with you. It's what makes most sense to me. \$\endgroup\$
    – Carles
    Oct 31, 2010 at 22:12

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