In both your examples, it could be just as easily and accurately said:
"I'm choosing camera X because it performs best for what I want",
camera X being a complete image capture assembly.
Well, let me butt in - I don't find the question too difficult.
For instance - I have purchased a Ricoh GXR, with the 28-300mm lensor. It has a small sensor. I know I will get noise if I push it. I am going to buy the A12 which has the much larger sensor, and that will give me much less noise pictures than the P10.
So, small sensor for B & W grainy pictures such as from Mitch Alland, or Wouter Brandsma.
A12 for Leica like resolution and character.
Godfrey - am I missing something here?
Keith
The GXR is a bit of a special case as it's the only camera body currently available that has changeable sensors, unless you're talking medium format cameras with interchangeable backs which are an entirely different scope of discussion. This discussion was about a sensor type used in a complete camera, not a situation where you were going to pick a body and sensor independently of one another ... eg:
"I want a Micro-FourThirds camera with a Fovean sensor!" If you're picking a hypothetical Hasselblad H12 and Hasselblad offers the same size sensor in both Fovean and Bayer matrix types for that body, then of course the choice between Fovean and Bayer matrix sensors is a discriminator.
It doesn't matter that the P10 vs A12 had a Fovean sensor or a Bayer sensor: the discriminator there is that the GXR+P10 has a much smaller sensor than the GXR+A12. The technology of the sensor is irrelevant ... the camera in one configuration has a performance characteristic that suits your need better than the camera in another configuration. Note that you don't get a choice of Fovean vs Bayer at all ... you get a choice of sensor size.
IF there were a P10B and P10F,
then the specific sensor technology would make a difference: it becomes a criteria in your selection.
well, if you photograph outside and take wedding photographs, don't want washed out dresses and ink blacks then you may be part of the crowd who appreciates the S3 and S5 for their sensors.
If your subject matter normally fits nicely in the scene brightness range of the sensor then its all good.
mine often don't, yours may ...
In the case of the Fuji S3 and S5, you can't change the sensor in these bodies so you are pick one of these two over other cameras with same format, same resolution sensor because the cameras perform to your desire. The fact that they have a particular Fuji sensor is part of that performance envelope, yes, but you can't choose the camera independently of the sensor, just like you can't choose a Nikon D300s on the basis of Fovean vs Bayer sensor. You choose a Nikon D300s because it performs to the spec you want. The distinction of which sensor a particular body has is irrelevant, it's how the body performs that's important.
It's just like choosing a camera based on whether the sensor is CCD or CMOS technology. Since you don't get a choice model by model of which of these sensor technologies a particular body uses, you choose the body based on how it performs, not what type of sensor technology it contains.