With all the questions on CS3's abilities and since pictures are worth thousands of words, and with the recent stitching discussions, I thought I'd post an illustrated example of CS3's new stitching capabilities.
Here are four frames captured by just leveling the camera on my tripod and panning these four frames, with no particular attention paid to panning at the nodal point. I was using the mirror-up and 2-sec timer function on my 5D. I was not in any particular hurry, but even so the total elapsed time for all four captures was 12 seconds -- or in reality closer to 6 seconds net if I subtract the self-timer delays.
First off, I know this is not a great image, but one chosen to show how well CS3 automatically handles a difficult stitch. Note that I converted raw images to these small jpegs and the quality of the raw stitch is incredible, though difficult to show on the web with these small jpegs. Also note that I did NO tweaking to the images before or after the stitch and no adjustment of the final stitch or seams; these are merged "as-shot":
1)
2)
3)
4)
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Here is the dialog that pops up when you open photomerge. I have added "open" files to the merge:
Here is the finished automatic cylindrical or "sphreical" projection:
Here is the finished automatic perspective correct or "flat" projection:
Here is a closer in crop of the seams -- frames 2 and 4 have the opacity dialed down to 80% so you can see the quality of the seam:
Offered FWIW -- Cheers,