Hi Ken,(posted 8950 days ago)I too corosponded with Dick & Silvia on this same topic just a few weeks ago. You are not alone, as there seems to be a general dissatisfaction with TMX and XTOL. IMHO, the combination is very poor, producing low Dmax (an early shoulder) even for normal development. I haven't measured the full curve, but intend to do that soon. I haven't had a consistancy problem with XTOL and other films, and have been fortunate not to run across any of the defective "caked" developer packets. I finally got decent tonal quality from TMX and Rodinal, but the grain is excessive. Strongly suggest buying The Film Developing Cookbook by Anchell, ISBN 0-240-80277-2, which talks about t-grained films in general. Based on their information, and on my experiences, I have abandoned the use of TMX. It's produced a decade worth of poor results for me, and enough's enough!