The store soon became a focus of the growing influx of young gay people, who were coming from across the US to the Castro, where their sexual orientation was accepted.

[2] Beyond selling cameras and film, Milk turned the store into a social center, and a refuge for new arrivals.

Artifacts from Castro Camera, including Milk's barber chair, a collection of antique cameras that was displayed at the store and the front panel of the awning bearing the name of the shop, are preserved in the holdings of the GLBT Historical Society, a museum, archives and research center in San Francisco.

The society displayed the camera collection in an exhibition it devoted to Milk in 2003, "Saint Harvey: The Life and Afterlife of a Modern Gay Martyr.

"[14] In addition, the art director for Milk consulted the collection when creating props for the Castro Camera set.