Hugin 2010.4.0 beta1 is available in experimental (after the next mirror pulse). The major feature is inclusion of a (patent-free) control point detector (cpfind). No need for getting autopano-sift(-c) from third part repositories anymore.
My first tests were pretty promising, cpfind is very fast and seems to find reasonable controlpoints. It does not seem to be possible to limit the number of control points anymore, though.
Update 2010-12-05
See the wishlist
request in upstream's bug tracking system for a way to limit
the number of control points.
Unofficial lenny backports are available here.