Just a note of follow up, since a couple of people had contacted me to find out how my search was going. I was able to get clips of raw video from several different HD camcorders and also from a still camera that shoots video. After trying a couple of pieces of software for extraction,I found some that do an EXCELLENT job of producing still photographs from video.

My conclusion is that good HD video can be used to produce good photos. The key to this is that the image size of 1920x1080 gives excellent pixel density on the photos. I have always been very disappointed by frame snapshots from my older tape-style camcorders, but these new HD ones can really do the job.

For those of you who are like me and have little assistance for a photo shoot, a short video of a dog presented as you would to a judge may give you some great frames for photo reproduction. The timing of the "click" can be so critical when you want a particular shot with a still camera, but if you can use any frame in a video clip, there will likely be at least one you love

Price vs. output, I now have to decide if I want a high-megapixel still camera that shoots video or a camcorder that shoots high-megapixel stills. Decisions, decisions....