Be sure to check in at http://dpreview.com/ thier forums and reviews will help you decide what you think you may need in a camera and what each current camera offers you.
I've been a member there for ten years.
Lots of great reviews.

I just picked up a Panasonic LX3 after reading the forums. Never held one, but the forums and preview wee enough to tell me what I needed to know. . It's a great smaller digicam with decent low light ability and it shoots in widescreen as well as in 720 P HD video. I hadda have one!
Here's a Pano from last week from it:






And a snapshot out of my sunroof at a stoplight. It is cool having a camera with me at all times!

 

I have a panasonic tz3 .. but id like a SLR w/ lenses

 

Yeah, if you do not have a DSLR you know where to go, they are so much better in image quality than a digicam.

I have 3 and I wanted a more portable reasonably decent camera, hence the Panasonic.
DSLRs offer you much higher ISOs with way better image quality.

You will be happy with one.

Here's an ISO 1600 example= pretty much no noise or very little...

 

ya im looking at a nikon d40, 60 or 80

 

 

nice pictures there.