He filmed in black and white and color mediums, and his work received nominations for seven Academy Awards over three decades, although he never won the statue.

Cronjager pioneered several new techniques and types of cinematography, developing new camera angles in the 1920s, working on one of the earliest film noirs in the 1940s, and using CinemaScope in underwater photography in the 1950s.

Edward's brother, Henry Jr., was also a famous cinematographer, although his filmography is sometimes confused with that of his father due to the similarity of names and the fact that the active years of their careers overlapped.

[3] One of Cronjager's first efforts behind the lens was at the age of 19, filming the heavyweight championship bout between Jack Dempsey and Luis Ángel Firpo in 1923.

[10] Cronjager was lauded by industry magazines such as Variety for his inventive camera work in 1928's Warming Up, which added realism to the efforts of Dix as a baseball pitcher.

At one such exhibition in 2015, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, it was described as "the film’s true star is the extraordinary location photography in Arizona's Canyon de Chelly and New Mexico's Valley of the Enchanted Mesa."

Kevin Brownlow, a British film historian, noted: The color in the original print is breathtaking; Redskin leaves an impression of a kaleidoscope of awe-inspiring backgrounds, with such much happening in the foreground that one hardly has time to take in the whole frame.

[19] In addition, he used over two million feet of film during the production, 250,000 of them during the land rush scenes alone; he communicated with his cameramen through army surplus field telephones.

[21] When a new type of film allowing the photographing of faster-moving action was introduced in 1931, Cronjager was one of the cinematographers who participated in the ASC's field testing of the product.

[22] In 1932 Cronjager worked with two other well-known cinematographers, Lucien Andriot and Clyde De Vinna, on King Vidor's film, Bird of Paradise.

[24] The year also saw Cronjager's selection to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) nominating rules committee for the cinematography Oscar.

[31] In 1941 Cronjager shot one of the earliest film noirs, I Wake Up Screaming, starring Betty Grable and Victor Mature, directed by H. Bruce Humberstone.

[32] A recent review by Gary Giddins of The New York Sun, called I Wake Up Screaming "one of the most beautiful black-and-white movies ever made.

[37] Cronjager manned the camera for the classic My Friend Flicka in 1943, starring Roddy McDowall;[38] but it was his work on Heaven Can Wait which earned him his fifth Oscar nomination, this one for color film photography.

[40] Cronjager received his fifth nomination in four years for his work on 1944's Home in Indiana, directed by Henry Hathaway, and starring Walter Brennan; he lost again, this time to Leon Shamroy for his photography of the film Wilson.