In the 1960s he moved to the small screen, where he did the bulk of his work over the next two decades, beginning as the director of photography (DP) for the final three seasons (1967-1969) of the television melodrama, Peyton Place.
He took over the camera helm for the second series of the western, Alias Smith and Jones in 1971, and was frequent DP on Columbo.
For the initial episode, titled "Hill Street Station", Cronjager chose to shoot approximately 90% of the show utilizing hand-held cameras.
The TV film was titled The Return of Frank Cannon, and Allen was impressed with Cronjager's work on Hill Street Blues.
It took Cronjager and his crew seven and a half hours setting up the scene's lighting, which took up 6000 feet of cable and used about 3,000 amps.