In my snowboarding game I use a virtual rope that connects the camera to the character. The virtual rope was essentially a verlet mass-spring system using fixed timesteps and because of the springs it never felt too tight. The camera's position was the end of the rope and its direction was always the vector from the end node to the second or third node depending on its length. The benefit of this system is that if you stopped quickly enough, the camera would actually get whipped ahead of the player and facing backward and it was a neat effect, but it may not be desirable for you.