zoom...

[BarryBD]

When in a fight, what is the best way to look at taking a shot?

Do you zoom in?  How far?  When?

What's the head position when not zoomed in?

[Bruv119]

personally I dont zoom when shooting.

Only exceptions when you have a run 190,  600-800 out, in my pony and they think they have gotten away and start flying straight thats when they get hammered 

[Bruv119]

i'd also add that how big your monitor is has an impact to how much zooming you need to do.

how big is yours?

[DaveJ]

Usually zoom actually throws off my aim, because even the slightest adjustment on the stick will cause the pipper to go everywhere and just distract you.

[Ghosth]

Only time I zoom in is if I'm on the deck chasing a p51 or similar "runner" I'm more than 600 back and trying hard to ping him so I can force him to turn. Then zoom works great.

Just be aware that it narrows your focus, helps cause target fixation, and loss of SA.

Much better IMO to leave the zoom off, keep your head on a swivel, and close the range, then shoot.

[Lusche]

Do you zoom in?  How far?  When?

Unless very close, I do use zoom when shooting. Most of the times standard zoom level (set with shift-y) I do have zoom toggle, zoom in & out mapped to my stick
I do use more zoom only to quickly determine alignment of distant cons, no for gunning.
But I'm constantly toggling between zoom and non-zoom during a fight.

Don't get fixated on your target!

[uptown]

I zoom in when taking a shoot at the enemy, but quickly zoom back out as too not lose my SA. When I'm on a bombing run I zoom in all the way so that I can get those small strat targets like troops and such with the small bomb loads. I have a button on my stick to toggle zoom and a slider on the throttle to adjust the field of view.

[BaldEagl]

I have zoom toggle mapped to my stick and zoom in and out regularly during a fight.  I never use more than default zoom though (shift z... not y).  I also always use the default forward head positions.

[Krusty]

My joystick throttle started spiking just a little, and later I got a CH throttle quadrant, so I remapped my stick throttle to be zoom FOV.

It's a VERY useful tool.

I have always had a toggle zoom button mapped since I started playing. It helps with everything from shooting at at target to spotting on a field to see how many ack guns are down, etc.

The easy-access zoom FOV I've got is ever-so-useful. I hit zoom. The target is just a hair out of the corner of the screen, so I pull back a degree on my stick's throttle, and all of a sudden he's visible!

For the most part I can get hits with and without zoom, but if the con is outside 400d I'd say I'm more likely to be zoomed in than not. The pixelation of a con gets worse the further out it gets, so I just zoom in to avoid that.

[BnZ]

I NEED zoom to see such little details as whether or not the plane ahead of me is right-side up or inverted, whether he is coming or going, etc, outside of ~D200. Stuff that is good to know in a dogfight. Once you are knife-fighting in a phone-booth at that distance though, I do not think it is useful. Bigger monitor, better graphics, and better eyes, I might not use it at all.

[BarryBD]

I've got a 22 inch monitor

But thnkx for the tips all, found what I needed to know

[Ghosth]

Bnz IMO if you can't see if he's right side up at 400 yards then

A your monitor is too small
B your resolution is set too high
C Both!
Gunery is determined on your FE, if you see a single dot, its going to be very hard to hit it. But
if you have a larger monitor, and lower resolution setting, so you see a bigger dot, its going to be a lot easier to hit.

The higher you set your resolution, the better things look, and the smaller the planes get.
What is a single pixel dot at 800 yards in 1600x is 4 or 8 pixels at 800x.
But don't take my word for it, check it out yourself.

Key is to find a balance that you can live with, and still see to shoot.

[Bosco123]

I use a very small amout of zoom when I am shooting anything. That has always helped me when I am shooting.
The only time I do not use zoom is in a 1v1 and we are doing siscors and I have the advantage.
<S>

[BaldEagl]

Bnz IMO if you can't see if he's right side up at 400 yards then

A your monitor is too small
B your resolution is set too high
C Both!
Gunery is determined on your FE, if you see a single dot, its going to be very hard to hit it. But
if you have a larger monitor, and lower resolution setting, so you see a bigger dot, its going to be a lot easier to hit.

The higher you set your resolution, the better things look, and the smaller the planes get.
What is a single pixel dot at 800 yards in 1600x is 4 or 8 pixels at 800x.
But don't take my word for it, check it out yourself.

Key is to find a balance that you can live with, and still see to shoot.

That is true of CRT and scaled LCD monitors.  It is not true on non-scaled LCD's.

[MachNum]

This is one of those things that is going to vary from person to person. There have been good suggestions here, so I'd try them all and see what works best for you. I usually only use zoom when I'm "sniping" (>d500), but like others here, I have it mapped to a key on my controller. I use it much more often for checking the orientation of distant cons.