Grappling w. some mates! (Jiu Jitsu)

Brought the XTi and 17-55 (the nifty was with my brother in law and he wasn't there) combo to the gym and snapped a few in some terrible lighting areas. You might be able to see that there are 2x2 windows every 6-8' which caused the metering on the camera to act really honky!

I tried to rescue as many as possible but there was just too much grain in them! I am in a debate with myself if I should upgrade:
A) a 40d and keep the 17-55
B) a 1d mk i or ii and sell the 17-55 for 85/1.8
C) sell the 17-55 and invest in 2-3 primes of different focal lengths
Any other suggestions? I will keep practicing at the gym for sure so when I do change I will have a different set of toys to use.

Most of these were at 800 (a couple at 1600) ISO I believe and I just pumped up the brightness in DPP.

Rolling Night at IMS

This one is me getting a Triangle from mount.

PM sent.

I would say work with what you have until you know what you need. There should be no question in your mind as to the equipment needed for the type of shooting you are going to do.

If the backlighting is affecting your metering, then shoot in this gym using manual settings, which is probably a good idea for most gym shots anyway.