Your prototype is beautiful.
I hate to be the turd in the sandbox but…
I am a professional at bringing products to market. I’m a professional engineer and was once pretty into analog photography.
I’d really like to assist with this project but I fear that like many other ‘inventions’, the developer has painted himself into a corner because of poor market research and no business plan. This is why there has been no VC investment or a purchase by other camera makers who fully understand the business.
This is a comparable 4x5 camera. It is 1/2 the weight and at $1310 is 1/10th the target price for this camera.
https://www.chamonixviewcamera.com/cameras/45f2
At $10,000 - $15,000 each for these cameras, how many do you think you could sell total? How many in a year? How big is the market for a 4x5 camera that costs the same as a new Honda Civic? Depending on the lens (if you plan to include one at that price point), your cost will be $500-$1000 each depending on volume. The margins look attractive at first glance.
How much do you think marketing will cost? You aren’t going to get these into the right hands for under $20,000 - possibly 2-3 time that. You have no brand.
Just doing quick napkin math, any investor is going to look at your $15k valuation, double it for unforeseen costs, add the cost of a marketing campaign at $20k, then he still needs to make parts to sell and assemble them.
To do this, the cost to an investor is minimum $50k and he has a camera that costs $500 - $1000 each to manufacture and competes directly with a $1310 product that has 1/2 the weight.
My estimate is that there is maybe a market for 20 or less of these over 5 years at $15,000. Maybe 25 over 5 years at $10,000, and likely 500 at $2500 over 5 years.
Doing quick math, this works out to $50,000/500 cameras or $100 each for the sunk costs, $1000 each for manufacturing, and at least $700 each for cost of sales (unless you plan to direct market which still is not free). At the end of the day, you have a $1800 cost per camera. Your gross profit is $350,000 over 5 years.
What if you can’t sell them for more than the $1310 competition?
Did you ever do a realistic business plan? What were your assumptions? How did they differ from mine?
How do you plan to pay yourself or any employees?