"It feels like the future"

There's a lot to be said for keeping up with technology. Maintaining a close eye on the latest innovations can provide creative possibilities that expand horizons and advance your techniques. A new piece of kit can help get you where you want to go quicker and make feasible something previously seen as impossible.

For London-based fashion photographer Ian Hippolyte, keeping things current is a constant throughout his career. As a child, he eagerly sought out the latest kit to improve his early videos. His preference for the contemporary served him well – over 80,000 YouTube followers will testify to that.

His biggest switch so far has been to migrate from Canon DSLRs to the mirrorless EOS R System but, he admits, it was far easier than he had originally imagined. "Coming from DSLR to mirrorless seemed like a big jump at first, but when I actually used the mirrorless camera, I found it wasn't," Ian says. "It felt very familiar. I've been using Canon for years, so it was natural for me to stick with Canon and move to mirrorless. The transition has been completely smooth."

Ian previously opted for the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV paired with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM lens, but his recent experience of using the Canon EOS R5 with the Canon RF 28-70mm F2L USM left such an impression that the switch was made permanent.

"It feels like the future. It feels updated," he says. "The body is smaller, so it feels less cumbersome to hold. But there's also the image quality. I knew I was going to get great image quality and the colours were going to be strong, vibrant and true to life."

While the EOS R System may feel familiar, there are some notable changes that make the cameras stand out. One of the most impressive is the Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus system, which in the EOS R5 features 5,940 selectable AF positions covering virtually the entire frame. And the Face/Eye Detection capability gives portrait and fashion photographers previously unthinkable levels of autonomy.

Ian's move to mirrorless has also opened the door to the range of RF lenses, while also retaining the option to use his EF lenses. "I've used both the RF lenses and my EF lenses with the Mount Adapter EF-EOS R and the quality of both has been great. Some people have reservations about using the adapter because it might affect the speed at which the camera communicates with the lens, but I haven't noticed anything like that. It's been great."

He continues: "I love using the RF 28-70mm F2L USM, because being able to go down to f/2 with that zoom focal length is amazing. Having that shallow depth of field – you don't really see that with a lot of zoom lenses. I love working with zooms in general because it speeds up my workflow as I don't have to change lenses all the time.

"Especially when you're working with models, you don't want to stop to change something. You want to be focused on the subject and what you're trying to capture. So being able to zoom in and out and have that flexibility really helps."

The Canon EOS R5's full-frame CMOS sensor captures image files packed full of data. Paired with the DIGIC X image processor, the EOS R System delivers post-processing options alongside detail and clarity. And the prospect of capturing 45MP images opens up a raft of potential that Ian has been quick to exploit.

"Having such a high-resolution camera is really beneficial because it gives me the flexibility to crop in if I need to," he explains. "Sometimes you're never really sure how the photo is going to be used, so it's good to be able to shoot a little wider so that you have options. But you also need the image quality to be able to crop into a tighter shot or even a detailed shot. That's something that really stood out to me with the EOS R5 and the higher resolution it offers."

Ian's move to mirrorless echoes his journey as a teenager, upgrading from a camcorder to the seemingly endless possibilities of DSLR cameras and, in particular, the Canon EOS 600D (now succeeded by the Canon EOS 850D) in an effort to upgrade his videos – a move that also took him on the first steps of his journey into imagery. Now, 10 years later, the Canon EOS R5's video capabilities, which include cinematic 12-bit 8K RAW video, present a much greater leap but with the same hybrid flexibility.