>>4429230In film times a 135mm was the "long" lense a person had, not just a "portrait" lense.
You're forgetting how limited most kits were, and how bonkers expensive all of this shit was, relatively. Doctors and lawyers had SLR cameras in the 70's, not normies; and for the most part nobody was shelling out for exotic longer lenses that cost as much as their 3-lense kit did to start with and could only be used with a tripod.
A 135mm was the longest lense that could be made in a hand-holdable speed in standard 49-52mm filter sizes.
With modern kits with digitals and zooms, longer focal lengths are easily covered in ordinary quality, and the relative cheapness of modern kits means a specialised fast portrait lense can be justified by many, and an 85mm really is a better length for that, for all the reasons above.
