Best general purpose lens

[dgdot]

Hello all. Getting ready to take the next step to a dslr. Am leaning heavily towards the Rebel XT.
From most of my research, the overwhelming opinion seems to be to just order the body and avoid the stock Canon EF-S 18-55 lens.
I do a lot of photography of real estate (interior and exterior) for web, print, virtual tour, etc.
The Canon EF 28-105 f/3.5-4.5 II USM seems to be thought of highly.
Given my needs, I would greatly appreciate your input. Is the 28-105 enough of a general purpose lens to get by with? Can anyone recommend a different lens in that price range? Many thanks

[lucky8]

If you are going to get a lens starting from the 28 range, I would get the kit lens to cover for those wider angles you never know you're going to run into one day. Anyway it's only $75 more and for that price, it's a good lens.

But if I were you, I would spend a little more and get the Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM instead. It's a lot nicer lens with a little extra zoom.
IS is a nice feature and will help you take a crispier picture with less blur. Plus they have rebates going on for these lenses.

[24Peter]

I like the 28-105 f3.5/4.5 as a general purpose lens - but wouldn't suggest it for your use. If you're doing real estate/architectural (sp) work you want at least 18mm or wider (maybe even the EF-S 10-22mm). Wide angle on the kit lens isn't terrible and should suffice for web photos just fine. Small prints too. Problem is, it gets pretty pricey to jump to the next level for a good wide angle lens. You may want to try the kit to see if it suffices for your needs. If not, you can always spring for better glass later.

[coldrain]

Like 24Peter said, you will need to go wider than 28mm for building photos both inside and outside. 28mm on a DSLR with an APS-C size sensor (like all "affordable" DSLR's) will amount to about 44mm due to the crop factor because of the small sensor (22mm compared to 35mm).

With a Canon 350D or 20D you need to multiply focal ranges with 1.6 crop factor to understand the field of view you get with lenses.

So, 18mm would get you around a "standard" 28mm wideangle field of view of a 35mm full frame camera.

The Sigma 18-125mm is very affordable and will give you the range you seem to think of.
If you want a more lightsensitive and better lens (not sure if you need more quality wise) the Tamron 17-35mm f2.8-4 is a very good and still very affordable wide angle zoom.
Canon, Sigma and Tokina offer good zooms with even wider field of view.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm USM
Tokina At-X 124 PRO 12-24mm f4
Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC HSM
all would be very worthwile for architectural exterior and interior shots, especially if you want to make virtual tours where you need to show as much as you can from interiors, and maybe will make 360 degree panoramas.

[dgdot]

Great comments. Thanks very much.
After reading a lot of reviews, I'm leaning towards the Tokina AT-X 124 pro 12-24 f4 for my wide angle (real estate) needs.
For a more general lens, I keep coming back to the Canon EF 28-105 F/3.5-4.5 II USM. It's getting very good reviews (http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=206&cpage=3&perpage=15&cat=27#poststart)
at a great price.
Does anyone have any experience with the 17-85 IS? I'm wondering if I would be able to get away with using this lens exclusively in lieu of the wide angle 12-24.
Thanks