I shot 21 photos, all 10 megapixels, and stiched them together in 84 seconds. That is fast!
I use locked exposure and white balance for best result, overlapping about 40-50% in every image. Mostly 24 mm wide angle.
I have to say ICE is the best panorama tool I have used yet. It is fast and very accurate and makes high quality stiching. Photoshop's tool is a nigtmare compared to this.
My camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. Image quality when shot: 80 ASA raw files, converted to tiff before stiching. Makes good images.