Houston, we have a problem

The other day we went for a hike to the Coronado Butterfly Preserve on the Ellwood Mesa. Imagine my surprise when I took a picture and got this:

This was on an automatic setting. I took this next one in manual. See the difference?

Same exact scene. Uhoh. I knew I had a problem. Shortly thereafter, I got an error message: Error 01, Communications between the camera and lens is faulty. Clean the lens contacts. I cleaned the lens contacts and still the error message.

I took these the day before:

Confused, I google'd the error. I got everything from faulty lens connectors to a blown motherboard in the camera. To test the camera, I tried on another lens. Here is the result:

"Good" news. It is only my one lens. Sigh. Anyone else ever lose a lens? I can't figure out what changed from one day to another. Strange.