Apparatus for collecting light from an LED and transmitting it in a near-uniform column incudes a conical reflector having a roughed up inner surface about the base of the LED for collecting light emitted to the sides of the LED, and a lens specially designed to focus the collected light into a near-collimated beam. The lens has opposite, substantially elliptical surfaces to collect and collimate the rapidly diverging light from the LED and the reflector, and each lens surface includes a flat sp...