Medium format back prices ludicrous

RichA wrote:
The price of an entry-level car? 4000lbs of steel, plastic, aluminum,
electronics, base metals, rubber, etc., the same as a 1.5lb piece of
electronics?.

The price of an entry level spaceship? 4,265 lb of steel,
aluminum, electronics, base metals, rubber, etc. ---
$290 million?[1] The same as 6592.407 MF backs?

Pure insanity.

Indeed. When they could have bought you more MF backs than
you could ever use.

Those things aren't radiation-hardened
and going into space, so is it solely the R&D and the sensor being
paid for here? It certainly isn't the $10-$20 worth of electronics or
the LCD screen...

Mercury wasn't radiation hardened nor had a computer on
board. They used film cameras. And with the low number
being built, it was practically all R&D.

-Wolfgang

[1] The Mercury project, 20 capsules built, cost 2.9 billion
in 2010-US dollars.