For stitching you can't beat PTGui (http://www.ptgui.com/) but it's quite expensive. I use it professionally. Hugin (http://hugin.sourceforge.net/) is an open source and free stitcher that does a decent job but there is a steeper learning curve and it can be a real pain to set up.
What type of pano do you want to do? Just a super wide one of a landscape (mountains, sound?) or a 360deg x 180deg immersive one? The techniques, skill requirement, and equipment are quite different.
