I'm just getting started with my FS700 and have 2 zooms at this point. Wondering how much to spend on a protective U/V filter which can be as cheap as $10 for a Tiffen and also will be getting polarizers. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

mb

I would not put an uncoated cheap UV filter on a good lens. The Best are B&W (costs more than many lenses) but the better quality Tiffens and Canon filters are OK.

The anti reflective coatings keep light from bouncing around between elements like the front of the lens and the back of the UV filter and even inside the filter itself, this is important to get good contrast and color as well as less flare from your lens. More expensive filters are also much higher quality and flatter glass.

The other filters I find very useful are the circular polarizer and graduated ND filters (these are best used in matteboxes so they can be moved around but the fixed round ones will help a lot with bright sky.

Everything Olof said. Cheap filters can also soften the image significantly.
p

I have a couple B+Ws as well and agree that they're very nice. Recently though, I've been buying Hoya, (including for the 18-200 that came with my FS700) and been just as happy with those. This test convinced me to try them: lenstip.com/113.1-article-UV_filters_test.html