I do not want to hard wire the dash cam to the car. Is there an alternative to powering the cam when the car is parked? Is there an external battery charger or something with a female adapter that can take the cigarette lighter?

 

Yes, a Korean company called Lucas has made a few portable UPS designed to work with dash cam in parking mode.


Look for the "Power Safety Device" section on the right on their web site. This is one of them.
http://lukashd.com/eng/product_info/power_lock_3.html

Haven't used it but I would highly recommend to go to dashcamtalk.com for more specific questions.

Personally I don't like the idea of putting a portable battery inside the car because there may be some safety issue --- car cabin can be quite hot in the summer and not a good idea to put a battery in the car in such an occasion.

 

A little more detail on the wiring... the camera comes with a power cord terminating in a cigarette lighter insert. You will need to (obviously) cut off the lighter portion if you are going to hard wire the camera. Inside the power cord are two very fine gauge (24?) wires. The red wire is hot, and goes to the green/white striped wire (as per Umbertob's linked post above). White is the common, and again as per Umbertob's post, can simply be grounded under the bolt in the overhead console. With wire this fine, I stripped off a large portion of the insulation and doubled the wire back on itself to increase its diameter and ensure a good connection in the posi-taps.

 

the OP stated he did not want to hard-wire the device...