@Bif: Nice shots - I especially like #1 and #4, but the latter seems to suffer from some veiling glare at the top left. The bokeh of that lens doesn't look too bad, even though you can see that the light distribution within the blur discs is very unideal (bright ring and a central hotspot).
Thanks Aham! Yep, doughnuts with a nail in center - that's what this lens produces until about 100mm. From 100mm to 200mm they're more flat-ish though.
I'm not sure what glare you're referencing though. On #5?
So, alternative it is. Well, here are a couple of shots taken with a horrible lens. When the revolution comes I hope its designers will be first against the wall. It is seriously bad. I'm talking about the Sigma 18-200 3.5-6.3 OS super zoom. I had the misfortune of using it for two years. This was some years back before I started using good glass so I took its crappy performance for being normal.
Still, on occasion it could produce something interesting. I found a couple of such pictures after organizing my photo library. Here are a few (shot with a 350D) with interesting bokeh:
From 100mm to 200mm they're more flat-ish though.
