[Brightcolours]

37 years ago I bought a 85/1.4 Zeiss Planar and a 35/1.4 Distagon for Contax/Yashica. Don't try to make a f/1.4 look like something modern - it's not. There was a Planar 85/1.2 (1982) for Contax a while before Canon also had one (1989). Fast primes are no novelty. From 1928 Dr. Erich Salomon used an Ermanox with an f/2 lens, which later became f/1.8. Pre-war stuff...

And by putting things into perspective: I know it's not very common in the Netherlands to see prices like 1.98 € and pay them - usually it's 2.00 € then. But camera manufacturers tried to avoid the "slow" f/2.0 (as a lot of cheap lenses were f/2 something) and went for the compromise.

It's difficult to steer away from this reputation of cheap compromise. Fuji has two lines, one with f/1.4 or faster and one with f/2.0 or slower, and much more compact. This inbetween crap makes me wonder if Nikon really thinks someone is gonna pay an extra added plus for an f/1.4 to come? There's only one f/1.2 on the roadmap. One is close to "none". And as it's just another bloody 50 mm, I'm not interested anyway.

Also, for just f/1.8 no one needs a bigger mount diameter aslong as the primes are not exceeding 105 mm.

I was not saying or pretending to say that f1.4 is something modern... I was pointing out that for instance 50mm lenses have been f1.4 and f1.2 like forever, that 85mm f1.4/f1.2 is of a later date, that after that wider angle lenses showed up with f1.4 and that longer lenses (135mm, 200mm) are super fast now at f1.8 "only". So, that f1.8 does not mean much in itself if you do not consider the focal length too.

And to correct you: Canon's 1st 85mm f1.2 dates from January 1976, the 2nd 85mm f1.2 dates from March 1980, both predating that Contax comfortably.

I agree that on the whole, f1.8 reads and "feels" really slow... As long as we are not talking about 135mm, 200mm, 17mm lenses and such. I do not really understand why there is for instance not even a 85mm f1.4 on the roadmap.