Originally posted by spystyle Fast primes are a very important part of any shooter's bag.
Anyway, manual focus probably doesn't suit my sister - she is a Kodak EasyShare type shooter and I'm ytrying to bump her up to dSLR and I will process her RAW files for her
You might want to question the importance of a fast prime for her, then. They were the way to go with film, when zooms were low in quality, film speeds over ISO 400 were unusable, and the only means of stabilization was something that came in three legs. Most people moving up to a modern DSLR from a P&S would have a hard time seeing a need for a prime today. Not to say the need doesn't exist, but the market for such lenses has really plummeted over the years because of advances in zoom quality, high ISO performance, and image stabilization. And that - *greatly* reduced demand - is the answer to your question of why Pentax doesn't make any really cheap primes any more. Rather than being lenses for the masses, primes have become lenses for specialists.
FWIW, Pentax's two cheapest current primes are the FA50/1.4 and DA40/2.8, both currently around $350. They were about $100 less before the dollar crashed against the yen last year. I think it would be great if Pentax were to reintroduce a cheap updated version of their 35/2. Meanwhile, they can still be found, but are more expensive.
If you think your sister is going to be serious about photography to want a prime at all when most of the world couldn't care less, then there is no reason to assume she'd have a problem with manual focus, BTW - or to assume she wouldn't eventually want to spend a few hundred hundreds on a really good on in a focal length she loves.
Quote: If you guys could name some specific recommendations I'd appreciate it
Especially if you've tried it out yourself.
I have the Sunpak DS-20, which appears to be the same flash marketed under various other names. It's very bare bones as you'd expect given it's $30 price tag, but it does the job when I need it.