Indecent Exposure 31: Infant expressions

Hey Lori and Matt,
I had a question pertaining to SDHC cards for DSLRs. I have a Nikon D40 that currently uses a 512MB SD card from Sandisk. I am looking to upgrade and was able to find some very inexpensive 8GB SDHC cards from Sandisk. My question was if I'll notice any speed difference from the card while taking pictures with my camera and/or transferring images to my computer via a card reader.
Love the podcast, keep up the good work.
Regards, Josh Holat
http://www.joshholat.com

I recently purchased a D80 (July) with an 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 VR lens. I love the camera and lens combination in the majority of situations.
My wife and I are preparing for our first child in April and in lieu of a video camera, are looking for a great fast portrait lens. We can imagine flipping through still images, but would dread sitting down in front of the TV/computer to watch/edit hours of videotape, much less watching our child growup from behind a video camera.
I've seen the recent announcement of the the new Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G, several websites indicate that this may make a great portrait lens on Nikon's DX cameras as an equivalent 75mm fast prime lens.
Are there better options for portraits with the DX format at or below the approximately $450.00 price point? I am specifically looking for spectacular low light performance. Is there a faster zoom lens which would still work great for the situations I am likely to find myself shooting in? What are the pros and cons of using a full frame lens on a DX camera, if any, beside the 1.5 crop factor?
Any help you could offer would be appreciated.
Thanks again, and love the show
-Scott