Canon Photostitch vs. Photoshop Elements Photomerge?

epetti

I'm interested in people's experience with photo stitching software for doing panoramas. I saw a previous thread but most of the final recommendations seemed to be either Windows only or more expensive than I'm willing to pay. I already have on Mac Canon Photostitch 3.1 that came with my camera and Photomerge that comes with Photoshop Elements 2.0 (a bit older version). I've had mixed results with both -- some success, but it varies which is better from pictures to pictures. I'm interested in which one of these anyone else finds most useful or any alternates that are (1) Mac-friendly and (2) either free or very inexpensive.

Also, for Photomerge, any thoughts on using the straight Perspective correction versus Perspective with Cylindrical Mapping? Seems like they both cause distortions, just in different places and different types. What do you tend to use the most?

Ernie