How to spend my next $1k or $2k??? - a little help please.

[bigblue1ca]

I agree with cls on the f/4 vs. f/2.8. As for the 7D vs. 60D, the 7D's AF system is very good, but you pay more for it, whereas the 60D's is more basic. But, I've got around 15 games and thousands of images under my belt this season and I've managed okay with the 60D's AF; I'm sure if I had a 7D my keeper rate would have been higher though. As for image quality and noise, by all reports the 60D and 7D are very close, with the edge going to the 7D.

I had a look at your pictures and they look good, except they are under exposed between 3/4-1 stop (causing the whites to look grey), I'm only posting the one as an example, but the other image is the same. When I'm shooting hockey, I shoot in manual and over exposure by +1.3-1.6 to compensate for how the camera (and even then I still have to push in LR, thus why I want a camera I can shoot at 6400 or 12800) wants to take the white ice and make it grey.

Here's your original followed by a little PP in Lightroom: