Best camera lens for city lights shot

[HARV3Y]

My bf is trying to talk me into buying an digital SLR and the arm he's twisting is made of rubber. After some thought, and playing on my friends canon, I'm pretty much sold on the idea. I'm yet to read a few more of the threads in here but I had a general question. Are there lenses specifically suited to taking photos of city lights or does that come down to the camera? I live across the river from the city and the view is amazing, hows the best way of getting that captured in a photo?

As I said I'm yet to do all the research but is this scenario a function of the camera settings or lens?

Thanks in advance

[Klips]

A wide angle lens like the 10-22 EF-S is perfect for this kind of thing, however most of it is your camera settings. If you have something that will go down to 17 or 18 mm you'll be fine (which pretty much all kit lenses do), and if you really need width you can always put together a panorama.

[Spectrum]

1) Use a tripod
2) Use an f/8 aperture (and let it work out the shutter speed via the Av mode), or an even smaller aperture (eg. f/16) to generate a starrry effect around the lights.
3) Consider taking your photos while there's a glimpse of light still in the sky as it'll likely prove the more dramatic shot.