Trashman's somewhat correct, but the zoom should probably be left at 0.5. Also, it's a vector, not a distance, so you have the oppertunity to designate how much above the ship you're viewing it as well as how far out you start. This sort of thing is exactly what the lab was good for when you could edit the values there; if you can edit closeup position then you can tinker with it until you get it where you want it. I'd suggest trying about 125% of max_radius for the z offset to start with and maybe 25% of max_radius for y. Adjust accordingly.
Of course, if you want to make the in-game external view distance more reasonable, that's a different animal. But I won't go there unless that's actually what you're wanting to tweak.