Which of these lenses are the best for close by Dollphotography and allround too?

I've got the 40D and I've got the 17-85is and I like it alot. It's wide enough for most things and generally long enough for acceptable distances. I've got the 10-22 which I normally carry when I want more width and I've got the 100-400 if I think I'm going to need long distances.

The 50 1.8 is a great lens. Good for low light and decent distances.

I've never tried the other two lenses though it seems the 18-200 would also make a good choice to get good width and decent long distances too. The 28-135 is a good lens on full frame(5D/1D) level cameras I would think, but not wide enough for my purposes on a 1.6x camera.

 

I would just like to add that the EF-S 17-85 and the EF 28-135 are in a sense twin-cousin lenses, since they provide essentially the same field of view on small sensor and full frame cameras respectively. (17 x 1.6 = 27, 85 x1.6 = 136 for a converted 27-136 field of view.) Just a cute observation.

My friend has the EF-S 18-200, which I had the pleasure to use on an actual trip alongside my more traditional 2 zoom lens setup. It is a so-called travel lens or superzoom, best used when you travel light or if you are not willing or able to swap lenses (maybe it's windy or rainy). This is designed for the smaller digital sensors. And for photographers who move around a lot shooting random things, naturally.

The superzoom is really convenient, but has worse image quality overall than most other lenses sharing their focal range. Even kit lenses technically outperform them! If you shoot test charts, you will probably see the difference immediately, but for most of us in actual use with random subjects, the difference is probably less noticeable. Less noticeable than that lens you just dropped while trying to swap in the field. Did I mention how convenient it is?

I tolerate the superzoom's weakness on the road, but not in the studio, where I can plan and control everything. I usually shoot my dolls with the 50 1.8. I have yet to decide if I want to get a more expensive lens for this purpose. If your main subjects are dolls (which don't move), I would pretty much suggest anything except the superzoom for best image quality, especially non-zoom lenses (a.k.a. prime lenses). Studio and portrait shooting is quite different from event and travel shooting. Anything from about 50-135 mm is fine, though you'll probably end up standing quite far away the higher it goes!

(Incidentally, lens candidates for my new portrait lens would be the 85mm f/1.8, 100mm f/2, 100mm f/2.8 macro, 135mm f/2.8 with soft focus. The macro is nice since it is essentially dual-purpose and the soft focus is in there because I like gimmicks.)