50mm 1.8 for D80?

Im thinking of buying the 50mm 1.8 from my local Nikon dealer and the price looks great, but I was wondering if anybody has portrait shots with this combination that they could post?

I did have a chance to try the lens for 5 minutes at the dealer but I couldnt seem to get the shallow depth of field that I am looking for.

Maybe it was me, Im not exactly experienced with the D80 after coming from a Sony F828 a couple of months ago but I thought shooting at f1.8 Aperture priority in a well lit situ and with a fairly uncluttered background would get me that classic portrait look.

I asked the assistant for a bit of advice but unfortunatelly I think he was completely new to photography of any description.

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated as I am a bit undecided now.

just for reference, I currently have the 18-135 kit lens and the 70-300VR and I can acheive a decent shallow dof look with both of those.

Thanks

Andy