wow no idea, I know character size had a lot to do with it also. Larger characters since I believe the camera pull back is static appear to have less pull back distance because the character takes up more screen space. But it sounds like you can acheive the same results using the slider not dependent on race size? Interesting ill have to play with it and see what my findings are.
thats been one major complaint I have had really, I like to zoom really far out on my character sometimes to see whats going on around me.