But even Mr. Spitzer acknowledges that the old Polaroid had its drawbacks.

The scene has the cheerful, otherworldly quality of an old Polaroid.

"The photographs in the show were taken with an old Polaroid from the 60's or 70's," Ms. Testwuide said.

With an old Polaroid, he was taking pictures of a family.

Even 30 year old Polaroids and box brownies produced better images than that.

It developed slowly in her head, like an old Polaroid bubbling to life.

But one big advantage of the old Polaroid is that you could take a picture, hand it to someone, then immediately take another picture.

Like older Polaroids, the Mio produces instant prints that develop to full resolution in about five minutes.

The old Polaroid would say, "Hey, we've got a new product, let's set up a manufacturing line to produce it."

The theme is that each story is written from a collection of old polaroids Coupland found in a drawer.