monitors specs

Hi,

I'm finally moving into the 21st century and buying a LCD monitor for my editing system. Yes i've been living in a cave. Anyway....just curious about specs such as resolution size, colors, brightness and contrast ratio that i should be concerned about before making my purchasing decisions. Recommendations on brands would be cool too. In the past i've only edited SD and but i anticipate moving into the HDV editing world. I also shoot still photography and will want the monitor to be good specs for photoshop editing. I"m working on a Mac with FCP.

Any suggestions or recommendations for specs/brands to look for and why would be awesome! thanks.