I am sorry but i dont understand what you are doing or how? It sounds like you are on to something but I have to say i am not following? Help please
Jim is saying that on some cameras you can boost the magnification from within the settings menu. You should perhaps check the Panasonic/Olympus forums here (or on other sites) for more info on that.
So basically what everyone has said above can be summed up as follows:
On 'full frame' DSLR cameras a 400mm lens would give 8X. These cameras tend to be the most expensive (examples include the Canon 1D/5D, Nikon D4/D800) and have the highest image quality.
On so called 'crop' cameras the sensor is smaller giving an apparent boost in magnification (or 'reach'). The image quality generally isn't as good as full frame (especially at high ISO) but the cost/performance is good. Most consumer level DSLRs and mirrorless cameras are this type. The level of 'crop' varies from brand to brand. On Nikon it is 1.5 (so a 400mm lens would give 12X), Canon 1.6 (13X).
On Panasonic/Olympus (Micro 4/3) the crop factor is 2 (so a 300mm would give 12X). These are small cameras and they don't have the same choice of big heavy lenses as the types above.
On cameras which have non interchangeable lenses the sensors are generally much smaller (meaning a bigger 'crop') and magnification is often given as full frame
equivalent, so you might see a 20X zoom with 20mm-400mm equivalent range (meaning 0.4X to 8X magnification). Image quality is not as high as the above 2 options. Some so called superzooms have very high magnification but suffer from high ISO noise and other problems which affect image quality.
Hope that helps, if I have said something which others think is wrong I'm sure I'll be corrected.
This is the general rule: the bigger and more expensive the gear is the better the picture will be. Many of us don't like paying the high premiums for this (or the physical cost of lugging it around) and end up compromising.