I'm trying to ask a photographer what camera they used for some pictures they
took, but I'm not sure if what I think I should say is correct.

I was gonna ask: どんなカメラを使いましたか。

Is that correct? It kinda sounds unnatural/stiff to me so I'm asking here just
to make sure. Will using が instead of を make more sense? If I use the て form
for 使う, would that be too impolite?
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2015-07-12T16:55:36.037
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question
translation
Is there a more natural way of asking this:「どんなカメラを使いましたか。」?
To me it sounds just fine, though I would use the て form with います to make it
clear you're asking about what カメラ they're using _now_. You're being polite
enough by using ます so don't worry about it.

The new sentence will be: どんなカメラを使って いますか？
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2015-07-12T19:21:23.017
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answer
Although I agree with the above answer, it does not insist on a particular
photograph. If you really need to ask "With which camera was this particular
picture taken", I would go with :

> この写真{しゃしん}はどんなカメラで写｛うつ｝されましたか。

I will explain the main grammar point: `写す` means "to photograph". In this
case, we want to ask how this picture was taken, hence, we use the passive
form. Then we use the `で` particle to denote the means by which the action was
done. Note that if you are more familiar with `撮{と}る` as a verb, you can use
it exactly in the same way:

> この写真{しゃしん}はどんなカメラで撮{と}られましたか。

In fact the above sentence translates quite directly to:

> With which camera was this picture taken?

The passive form is a very useful construct, I can only encourage you to read
around, there are plenty of good resources online!
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answer