Mocon developer: Still fine after nearly four years in freezer

Some of you will remember that I designed a concentrated ascorbate-based liquid developer called "Mocon" which gives the image-quality of XTOL, but is long-lasting when frozen. The article about it is here:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)
But we didn't know how long it would last. Well, I just developed a roll using a bottle that's been frozen since March 2013 -- nearly four years.

Good news: The concentrate has not yellowed (indicating no deterioration), and a roll of Delta 400 developed yesterday looks fine. So we still don't know how long this concentrate will last, but it's at least four years.
This developer consists of a liquid concentrate, and sodium sulfite powder (kept separate from the concentrate). You measure and mix both to make soup. I've been keeping both in the freezer as part of this experiment. The article gives the formula for this concentrate, as well as development-times and alternate formulations.

The attached photo came from this test-roll, and was shot with an Olympus Trip 35 with my manual-speed modification. It shows the laughable styling of cars nowadays: The car's grill looks like Dearth Vader's mask!

Mark Overton

Thanks for the update, Mark. I have touted your excellent work on Mocon a couple of times lately. Seems nobody reads the old threads as much as they should!

I too recall MOCON, and am glad to hear that it is proving its longevity.

As for that Nissan, it always reminds me of this -- which is why I'd never buy one.