Oh...long time did read this thread.
For budget friendly and reliable dashcam, the most popular around here is 70 Mai and DDPai. I personally preferred DDPai due to it not using lithium battery and using super capacitor that can withstand high heat (safer especially for our super hot weather). That is my preference.
For 500 to 600, can get Z50 dual (front and rear). I don't know if rear dashcam hurt battery but all my dashcams, I always get dual front and rear. Since only record front, may as well record rear if ppl knock you and say you brake without cause. Both front and rear cam combined will provide much better viewpoint from police report perspective.
Myself, I always try to get GPS version but that will hike up the price to above 600. Forget about 4G link kit, that will require sim card that you have to additional pay monthly subscription to telco. Just take without 4g for fire and forget dashcam usage especially for parent usage (which I am the parent).
DDPAI has feature to shutdown dashcam under parking mode if set to limit battery going below 12.4V. This will prevent unexpected draining of battery. I use sleep mode aka only record if got collision. Unfortunately for most, it's very unlikely car battery can last for overnight recording during parking mode unless you installed dashcam battery packs to support recording during parking mode.
Yeah. exact reason i went for DDpai is for the supercapacitor batteries. The new 70 Mai also comes with supercapcitor now.
I self install and use the cig port. How do u set the parking mode? i think since i use ciggy port, these feature is not available. Do you connect using the fusebox method or OBD method?