EVERYONE OVER LOOKS iMovie!
when iMovie first came out I was playing around getting used to it. some of the stuff I put in were pictures of my brother and I throwing knives and tomahawks (yes, we have strange hobbies).
the pictures were lined up in sequence. I just had to slightlly adjust the running time for each by pasting a copy after a picture.
ex. in the timeline:
Pict1 Pict1copy Pict2 Pict2copy Pict3 Pict3copy and so on.
this worked great. not to mention it's free.
played movie, added song, exported movie....
come to think of it, every so often I used ken burns effects on a later project like that to "pause" the action just before a scene change.
For stop motion, if you have a mac (all come with iLife?), all you need is a digital camera and a tripod.
you also could try slideshows in iPhoto if want.