Not familiar with A55 but spot meter. Will probably blacken background. Sound like a tough environment to shoot really requiring a fast lens.

Were those investors Mom and Dad?

Diet Dr. Pepper for me, please.

So much time and attention is spent (rightfully so) on the exposure triangle. But there is another triangle that's important too. It's much broader in scope. I refer to this as the Photography triangle. It is formed by drawing a lines between the two ears and to the eye.

This triangle contains both the left and right side of the brain. The left side is were the exposure triangle resides. The right side is were composition calls home. The eye ties it all together.

I am left brained, so the technical piece is easy for me to understand. It's the right side that's harder for me to learn. But learning I am. I find myself now looking for good shots when I don't have my camera with me. With my eye in the view finder, I look at the entire picture not just the subject. Slowly I improve.

It's an interesting journey and great sites such as UHH have certainly helped.

The T2i and T3i are essentially the same camera. The benefit of the T3i is the articulated screen. This may or may not be important to you. I have it on my 60D and have used it. Is it worth the price diff? That's a personal question. I would think it very handy for macro work.

Here is a comparo that gives a slight edge to the T2i mostly because of weight and size.

http://snapsort.com/compare/Canon-T3i-vs-Canon_EOS_Rebel_T2i

It probably really comes down to dollars and sense. It probably would cost more to market two cameras that did essentially the same thing. Guts is guts. Most of the video stuff is firmware.

D60 or 60D. I believe that's exposure simulation. Are you in live mode?

note: this is my third edit as I am doing a little research.

You really need to suggest a budget. I shoot Canon and am very happy with them but I would not suggest they are the best or have clearer photos. (I'll leave those comments for the Nikon crew, LOL).

Hoss hit it on head. Great glass starts a little over a grand and goes up from there. But there is plenty of good lenses for less. Just need you to fill in the blanks a little.

Even if they started as a rip off, they grew into a pretty descent band. Was also a fan of the TV show and the monkeymobile. Note: not my pic.

Oh, ha ha. Show's my incredible powers of observation.

The problem with that crew is I'm sure they didn't clean up after themselves. LOL

That's right up the street from me! Nice shot. I tried to shot that bridge at night from the WW2 memorial. Could not get a descent vantage point.

It's amazing what they are doing with these things.

Agree with Windows Movie Maker. It's a free download if it's not already on your lappy.

I love his videos. 4:15 mark was very funny.

I can't remember were I saw it. It might have been on Motorweek. Some business had a fleet of electric vehicles (oversees). They developed these vehicles so the battery packs could be removed from the bottom of the vehicle. They would feed the vehicles onto a computerized track (like a carwash), robots would remove the pack and install a charged pack. The whole swap processes only took a few minutes.