That is a good one. Keep in mind that a 50mm 1.4 with digital magnification is actually a 75mm (D80) or an 80mm (40D/Rebel), which is perfect for portraiture. Also, I'd pay the extra $200 for the 50 1.4 over the 1.8 because the glass is much better. Many of my friends who are also professional photogs have this lens. Or if they have an extra $1000 to play with they have the 1.2
Be careful there, it's not that a 50 mm lens is actually a 75 mm on a D80. It still magnifies things like a 50 mm on a full frame body would, it just crops the frame so you have the same field of view of a 75 mm lens on a full frame camera. But the magnification doesn't change simply because you mount it on a 1.5x body. This is a common misconception!
SLC