Weight: system more important than sensor size?

Tom Axford wrote:

I think you are probably right. Canon and Nikon (and other DSLR manufacturers) have for decades followed a policy of making sure that their best lenses are their biggest and most expensive. This encourages photographers to spend more money and, indeed, some photographers actually believe that a small lens cannot be as good as a large one.

Leica and Zeiss (and some others) have not always followed this policy, however. For example, Leica's new 50mm f/2 APO-Summicron is better than their faster 50mm lenses, but lighter and smaller (although more expensive).

There are other examples from the days of film cameras, e.g. the Contax G Series cameras had superlative lenses that were much smaller and lighter than the best Canon and Nikon lenses, yet as good or better in IQ (although smaller maximum aperture).

Large cameras and lenses are a virility symbol to some and the manufacturers often pander to this.