Digital slr help? plz?

i own a panasonic lumix dmc-fz7 and I want to up grade. right now i have x12 optical zoom but i want more
if i get the Olympus EVOLT e-500l Digital SLR
will i get more zoom? and is it a good camera?

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.asp...

thats a link to the Olympus

Well, 12X optical (which is over 400mm in focal length) is the very best you can get in a digicam or prosumer camera.

The EVOLT E-500 is a digital SLR camera and you must buy various lenses to achieve the focal lengths that you want. So, if you want greater than "12X optical" you must buy a lens with a very long reach and it would be very expensive. (much dearer than the camera body alone). So keep that in mind.
However, the EVOLT has 8 megapixels which is very good and it gets good reviews. see the links below...

The link didn't work, but I found the E-500 on bestbuy.com to look at. With the E-500, it is a detachable lens, so you would have to buy the longer lens separately, so I'm thinking you're going to be adding a lot more to the price of the camera. I have a Panasonic myself, and I love it, so unless you're REALLY into photography, I'm not sure you want to spend the money.

12x zoom is a fair amount already. What sort of shots are you trying to take that you need more? Bren's right, if you want to get more zoom, you'll probably have to go for a DSLR with swappable lenses, and that's really going to cost. Plus such a camera would be a lot bulkier than your Lumix.